Trident Health Resources, Inc.: Emerging & Being Successful

As I ponder another growth spurt for Trident Health Resources, Inc. in which we, once again, will be hiring experienced perfusionists, adding new accounts far and wide across the country, and exploring expansion into other related services beyond those of our 21 years experience in contract services/staffing ,capital equipment, disposables and management… I am troubled. Where will we find the qualified, really good candidates that we will need? I am reminded of the universal struggle facing so many of us today. It's the struggle to reach and maintain a certain level of excellence and to be constant despite hardships, and find a way above the mediocrity of a sometimes less than inspired world.

Back in 1993, I read a book written by a Booz-Allen Health Care consultant, J Philip Lathrop , entitled Restructuring Health Care, the Patient Focused Care Paradigm. It was a turning point in the emerging corporate philosophy of our relatively new company. Patient focused care… so simple and yet so powerful. And it was a standard that we have tried to live by ever since and is a part of the Trident culture and the perfusion community, as well.

I am reminded...

In the early 1990's, American Scholar published a startling and prophetic essay by the late New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan entitled, How We've Become Accustomed to Alarming Levels of Crime and Destructive Behavior. Although Moynihan referenced the culture of crime in his writing, his terminology, “Defining deviancy Down “ rings true in its application of how some societies , countries, and even companies deviate from standards of excellence, in our case , the contracted health care services sector, thereby lowering the bar for others to aspire to less than excellent levels of performance. Moynihan argued that in American culture and politics, that as deviant behavior (or behavior that was less desirable, not up to standards previously held) increases, some crimes or poor behaviors become normalized and almost acceptable as the “new” standard, and only extraordinary events are considered truly egregious. While Moynihan was relevant in 1993, it is worth pondering in consideration of a changing landscape of business and healthcare… are we living up to the old standards that were so important when we were growing up or getting started in our Clinical or Business careers? Or, are we content to allow those standards to erode…to diminish…to slip down to a more comfortable acceptable level…defining deviancy down? With that pervasive attitude goes a "cutting corners" mentality in which the greatest services become average. Such is the risk , the reality and the challenge of applying Moynihan’s argument to present situations. How soon we forget that standards of excellence are not meant to be broken or diminished.

We've got to care and not succumb to the influences which can bring down our industry. I aspire to the old mantra , "Lead, follow , or get out of the way," and it's been said that if you don't adopt a philosophy to live by, then one will adopt you.... and the next thing you know, you are a follower of someone else's dream. Trident strives to stay current in the industry, embracing new ways, new technologies, choosing to grow instead of becoming victimized by the stagnation that any business might face. We have incorporated state-of-the-art technologies and computer systems to make sure our information data is secure and efficient. We place a premium value on service that is singularly patient focused. And we encourage our greatest assets…our employees… to not deviate from the standards that so successfully have inspired us to continue to be the best that we can.

I think of some of the important examples of such desire and zeal within Trident and of some in our Perfusion Community… The Aaron Hill's of the world left their mark. I remember the early years in this perfusion contract business, "The Golden Age," coined to represent the times when this industry could count on excellence in the graduates from Texas Heart, Ohio State, Medical University of South Carolina, for example. Perfusionists who were trained in the Army were both PA’s and then perfusionists were terrific candidates for employment. Bob Rush and his Shady Side School from Pittsburg was turning out exceptional grads who were experienced, well rounded, and had in excess of 150 solid cases to their name before graduation. You could count on these folks to make a difference... a lasting impression. Then, sadly, money and misdirection of motivations seemed to infiltrate some of the industry inasmuch as a patient focused care philosophy diminished as a key priority and the end product from many of the schools just do not have that spark, that zeal , that basic knowledge base , the case experience and the over all grasps of what is important and what is not.

Trident remains impassioned to succeed with excellence and fairness... We want to see this all around us. There was a time when there were no off-pump cases. Today, 40 cases are required to keep certification and yet the certifying board's standard for this hasn't kept up with the changes that are all around us. Perfusionists who are in involved with off pump programs sometime struggle to get enough experience to hone skills. It takes everyone to make changes... for things to get better.

Our sector is changing exponentially with the advancements of technology. I am very excited about the training simulators that are now available and by the advancement in technology that will aid us in sharpening our skills. I recently saw a video highlighting the statistics about the speed of change affecting us. Wow. Some of the stats are shocking and reveal how it is essential we be prepared to face the accelerating rate of change. This video clip, below, is a Must See and impacts all of us. The video is full of quotable facts regarding our current state of global competitiveness and underscores how we can continue to expect Shift to be a constant.

Please take a moment to view this clip (close to 5 million people have watched since it was released last year). Feel free to post comments.