Photo Friday: If you’re not at least nervous, it’s not courage

As the title of the post says. These signs were part of the innovative and colorful opening of the 3rd and last session of 2012’s Medicine and Management Course, for the first time in its history, hosted by Group Health Cooperative ( @GroupHealth ) , in Seattle, WA. (See: Does your physician know how to lead? A view into the Kaiser Permanente / Group Health Physicians Medicine and Management Program | Ted Eytan, MD)

This is a health system where people are nervous – about how to serve the greatest number of people with the best service and best quality. I have been here as part of the faculty for the course and I can say that they worry about things that our society expects physicians to worry about – supporting a healthy community and society. Their results show it – Group Health Medicare Coverage Ranked In Top 10 Nationally | Group Health Innovates.

The signs were a reminder to keep leading, on the challenging days and on the best days for this member-governed health system of the future. I still think it’s magical. And not just because they trained me :).

Here are some more signs from the journey and reasons to admire what’s being done here:

In his welcome, Executive Medical Director Michael Soman, MD, said to us, “In 1947, a few patients hired a few doctors, because they were fed up with ‘piecemeal’ medicine.”

Thanks for being nervous, courageous, and for being great hosts and teachers to those physicians and the generations that came after them.

Ted Eytan, MD