“Swing Like You Would Dance” Remembering Ben Davis

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The weather is starting to change for the better these days, and all of us start thinking about getting outdoors.

When I think about getting outdoors, I think of golf. As you know from some prior blog posts, I do think of golf as a metaphor for many aspects of life and a window into our culture and society.

Ben Davis

Detroit Golf Legend Ben Davis

Golf also offers insights into how people respond to challenges and life events.

Just as real quality is what occurs when no one is looking, the self regulation of penalties in golf is an incredible reflection of character. If a person cheats at golf, what do you think they do in business or in other aspects of their life?

The reason for this post isn’t to convince you of the metaphysics or tangential aspects of a sport that has someone trying to hit a small ball into a cup; it is to pay tribute to a great golfer and even greater man, Ben Davis.

Mr. Davis recently passed on at the age of 101.

On May 9, he was memorialized by the naming of the street leading to Rackham Golf course in Huntington Woods. Forever, golfers will drive down Ben Davis Drive to play at a course that plays a significant role in Detroit history.

Rackham Golf Course, off the westbound I-696 service drive near the Detroit Zoo, opened in 1923 as a gift from the philanthropist Horace Rackham. Incorporated in the deed for the property, it was stipulated that the course would be open to anyone, of any color. Most golf courses in Detroit and in the Nation were restricted to African Americans and people of color. Rackham broke down this barrier .

It was only fitting that Mr. Davis, who learned the game as a caddie, became the first black person to be appointed as a head professional of a United States golf course.

People weave in and out of our lives, especially in medicine, and my relationship with Mr. Davis was just so. Continue reading →

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A Thank-You to Henry Ford Nurses

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In celebration and appreciation of National Nurses Week, employees from across the Henry Ford Hospital campus took part in this special video message to thank our nurses for all they do:

Thank you to all of our nurses at Henry Ford Hospital and throughout the Health System!

If you have a special message for our nurses, please share it in the comments section below.

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Dr. Abouljoud Named Arab American of the Year

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This past weekend, I attended the 42nd ACCESS (Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services) Anniversary Dinner, honoring Marwan Abouljoud, M.D., director of the Transplant Institute at Henry Ford Hospital, as Arab American of the Year.

ACCESS presents the Arab American of the Year Award to individuals or groups that exemplify the organization’s mission to empower and engage Arab Americans. This year’s other awardee was National Public Radio journalist Diane Rehm.

ACCESS – an organization that focuses on empowering and enabling individuals, families and communities to lead informed, productive, culturally sensitive and fulfilling lives – has a long-standing partnership with Henry Ford. We’ve worked together to provide free health screenings and education, and so much more, in the community. And, its executive director, Hassan Jaber, is a member of the Henry Ford Hospital and Health Network Board of Trustees.

As Arab American of the Year, Dr. Abouljoud will take his place among a distinguished group of past honorees that includes former White House correspondent Helen Thomas; U.S. Sen. Spencer Abraham; entertainers Casey Kasem and Tony Shalhoub; U.A.W. International President Stephen Yokich; U.S. Congressman Nick Rahall; the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee; and St. Jude Hospital.

Dr. Abouljoud has led transplant surgery at Henry Ford to national and international recognition. He performed the first split liver transplant in Michigan in 1996, and in 2000 developed the first adult-to-adult living donor liver transplant program in Michigan. Continue reading →

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The New Patient Gown

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A couple of years ago, I posted on the blog – in 140 characters or less, as if I was live-tweeting from the hospital – about my experience as a patient undergoing an MRI.

You may recall a few of my “tweets” from that post: “Are any hospital gowns made for someone over 6 feet?” and “Need two gowns, you don’t want to see what’s behind #youtube.”

These are the same complaints we’ve heard for decades about the standard patient gown – it’s ill-fitting, uncomfortable and has a very drafty backside.

And now, we have a solution: A newly designed patient gown that’s comfortable, warm and keeps patient covered, yet still accessible to clinical staff.

Michael Forbes, a product designer at the Henry Ford Innovation Institute, talks with patient Ismail Khalil, M.D., a vascular surgeon from Lebanon who traveled to Henry Ford Hospital for a liver transplant. Dr. Khalil is wearing the new patient gown.

Michael Forbes, a product designer at the Henry Ford Innovation Institute, talks with patient Ismail Khalil, M.D., who traveled to Henry Ford Hospital from Lebanon for a liver transplant. Khalil is wearing the new gown.

The new patient gown – resembling a wrap-around robe that completely closes in the back and front – is being rolled out on several inpatient floors at Henry Ford Hospital.

It is among the first inventions to be made public by the Henry Ford Innovation Institute in collaboration with the College for Creative Studies.

The newly designed gown is:

  • Completely closed in the back, creating more privacy for patients
  • Made of a thicker, cotton/polyester blend material, which keeps patients warmer than the previous patient gowns
  • Double-breasted in the front, using three snaps, instead of ties, to close the gown
  • Intuitive in design, with different colored snaps and stitching along the left and right sides of the gown, making it easy for patients to put on
  • Accessible for IVs and other medical lines. The health care teams say it offers them uncompromised clinical access to the patient without needing to remove the gown

Continue reading →

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Celebrating National Doctors’ Day

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“Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.”
- Henry Ford

This Saturday, March 30, we’ll honor and celebrate the work of physicians who serve our communities as part of National Doctors’ Day.

While it officially became a day of national recognition in 1991, the observance of National Doctors’ Day dates back to March 30, 1933 in Winder, Georgia, when Eudora Brown Almond, the wife of Dr. Charles B. Almond, decided to set a day aside to honor physicians.

Nearly 60 years later, President George H.W. Bush signed Proclamation 6253, establishing National Doctors’ Day to “recognize our Nation’s physicians for their leadership in the prevention and treatment of illness and injury…”

Traditionally, people celebrate the day by thanking their physicians, mailing greeting cards, or sending flowers.

The red carnation is commonly associated with the National Doctors’ Day. The first observance in 1933 included the mailing greeting cards and placing flowers on graves of deceased doctors. Continue reading →

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Expanding Medicaid in Michigan

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Henry Ford Hospital’s Chief Nursing Officer, Gwen Gnam, lent her voice and her more than 34-years of nursing experience to an important topic facing our state: The expansion of Medicaid in Michigan.

Gwen took part in the Michigan Health & Hospital Association’s campaign to expand Medicaid, sharing her story as a registered nurse in this video:

The decision of how federal money will be spent impacts our patients and our hospital.

The Expand Medicaid coalition – made up of Michigan hospitals, mental health care providers, physicians, community-based health centers, health plans, human service organizations and others – urges the state Legislature to join with Gov. Rick Snyder to expand Medicaid as states are authorized to do under the federal Affordable Care Act (ACA). Continue reading →

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Achieve in 2013

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How’s that New Year’s resolution going so far? Are you eating healthier, spending more time at the gym, or finally writing the Great American Novel?

We all know that February can be a time when our resolutions begin to wane. You put in a pretty good effort for the first six weeks of the year, right?

So for those seeking motivation to carry on with their 2013 resolutions, I want you to watch this video:

Employees from across our hospital campus are working to ACHIEVE their 2013 goals – both personally and professionally. Continue reading →

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Leading the Way: The Future of Health Care

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For the 2012 Henry Ford Hospital Grand Ball, we wanted to make a high-impact video that expresses the passion that we have for our great hospital’s past and its future.

Enter our creative partners from DBA. They donated their time and talent to create a video modeled after the popular TED talk format to serve as that vehicle.

Actors being far too expensive, we found someone else to read the lines. And read the lines…and read the lines. (How do actors do this every day?)

I hope the above video from the 2012 Grand Ball inspires, motivates and excites you about the future of health care at Henry Ford Hospital.

Change is coming, we are ready, we are Henry Ford Hospital.

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Honoring Dr. King with Service

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“Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve.”
- Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

I grew up in a time when there was a threat of weapons of mass destruction, an unpopular war in a far-away country, economic uncertainty, and violence amongst our people. I was influenced, as a child, by John F. Kennedy, who as President dared us to do what we could only dream.

Martin Luther King, Jr.As the years have passed, I am now more greatly influenced by another noble man, the most eloquent and articulate spokesman of peace and justice and one of the most courageous Americans of our time: Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

He dared us to dream of what we could collectively be. His messages are as vibrant, powerful and meaningful today as they were nearly 50 years ago.

His life has special impact for me and every American, for he helped to free us of the illusion that we can somehow lift ourselves up by holding others down.

He filled a great void in our nation, and answered our collective longing to become a country that truly lives by its noblest principles.

He spoke to me when he preached that the yoke of oppression shackled the oppressor as well as the oppressed. He realized that oppression was more the result of a culture afraid of change than the result of hatred, and that the hearts and minds of well-intentioned moderates were more important to change than the actions of extremists.

He knew that a country could not truly be great when it did not live by its professed values, nor could any country truly be free when any of its people were not provided the freedoms and opportunities of the most privileged.

This was the same American dream that my Grandparents sought when they came to this country almost 100 years ago. Continue reading →

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