Mark Scheffer and Dr. Jack Bellah
I love my job as CEO at Mendocino Coast District Hospital. I have the honor and privilege of working with a dedicated team of health care professionals and support staff that are providing high quality medical care to our community. Each month I take time to get out of my comfort zone of business meetings, telephone calls and paperwork to spend time working with our front line staff. In fact I made that comment earlier today and one of our floor nurses, Amy, said “We’re like the Marines!” I have to agree. Our front line staff are like Marines. No matter what, they get the job done. On Wednesday of this week, I spent an entire day in our Surgery Department. This was my first time visiting our Surgery Department as an employee (I have been back there twice as a patient!). I had always heard from our patients of the skilled work that is being done “behind the closed double doors.” This was my chance to see it for myself. I want to thank our patients and our staff who allowed me to, not only observe, but also to work side by side with our staff. As I usually do, I like to be productive and useful when I visit a department. So on this day I learned how to properly clean a gurney (and prepare for the next patient) and to “sticker” charts. The one thing that I find to be common in every department that I visit, is that our work could not be done without effective teamwork. No where is that more true than in the operating room. The OR teams and Outpatient Surgery crew are like precision drill teams (again like Marines!) with everyone working together and doing their parts. Each team member is constantly watching the other members of the team to see if they need a helping hand. I was very glad to be there to lend my helping hand.