Tags: Positive Thinking

My grandmother used to say "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all!" so I have been very purposeful to speak and write in a way that honors the people who have worked to have a real Children's Hospital in my hometown of Richmond, Virginia.  For the twenty years that I have been a pediatrician, there have been many people who have stepped up to the plate. I have the greatest confidence that some day, the right people will do the right thing, for the right reason (...really any reason would be OK at this point.  Reason doesn't often figure that prominently when you're a pediatrician dealing with toddlers and teens every day so you get used to doing without it.)

Many of you opened the morning paper to read in the Richmond Times-Dispatch that "a loosely aligned group of pediatricians is exploring the idea of developing a free-standing, full-service children's hospital..."   It's true, and for the record, our city sure could use a children's hospital!  I am so unbelievably proud to be among those physicians. I have been donating my time to an effort that I know will eventually benefit many, and it is my hope that an ever increasing number of people will join me as they begin to learn more.

I signed on to work with public relations and marketing committees because...well, I guess because I have an outspoken voice. I blog and tweet, and I like having a place to channel my hopeful idealism. The Marketing/PR committee has been hard at work brainstorming ideas to get the word out that Richmond does have many places for inpatient pediatric healthcare... all of them good, but none of them GREAT.  It's really time that parents know what we have for our children's hospital care, but also that it pales in comparison to the way a Children's Hospital is exceptionally perfect for kids who have to be in the hospital.

In the next few weeks, the newspaper said all the hospital systems will be meeting to decide if they are able to help build this great hospital. These are really good men and women, working hard to do the right thing for all of our kids, and they've got their jobs cut out for them. It is NOT easy to agree on how to run a hospital and where it should be built.

Me? I've got some ideas, but really the power-people will have to agree on who will be in charge of everything.  I could be in charge of designing the hospital pajamas if there's a job like that!  Attention to the little details is important when you care for and about kids.

It's going to be very difficult for competing hospital administrators to speak the same language concerning our children's hospital.  I thought Brandon Scott Gorrell's notes from his Thought Catalog might be important to share with the power-people.  Can you envision anything that will change your mind...?

I noticed Gorrell's source for the alogorithm and chuckled.  I'm the praying sort, myself.  My grandmother always used to say, "God hears the prayers of little children," and I know the four that I tuck in each night are asking for a bricks and mortar Children's Hospital.  So am I.

It may take a miracle, but I believe in those, too.

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