Reimagining Healthcare - Human Element

0:01 This program is designed to provide general information with regards to the subject matters covered. This information is given with the understanding that neither the hosts, guests, sponsors, or station are engaged in rendering any specific and personal medical, financial, legal counseling, professional service, or any advice. You should seek the services of competent professionals before applying or trying any suggested ideas. Listeners, Hello, and thank you for tuning in to a Sharp Outlook on pay for HD radio and talk or TV. I am Angela Sharp, Your host our arm chair discussions with industry experts will give you the steps, tools and information to be successful in business and to prepare you to be your best self. Hello, I'm Angela Sharp, and thank you for joining a Sharp Outlook. Today, we're going to talk about reimagining healthcare with a human element. In a world of rushed appointments, cold exam rooms, and endless paperwork, it's very easy for a patient to feel like they're just another number instead of a person. You feel like you're not being heard, understood, or the physician does not have a true concern for your health issues. Imagine that just following a pre subscribed treatment system generated by a

1:34 computerized system. Today, we are going to sit down with Eric Ayers Heirs, I'm sorry, a teacher, storyteller, an advocate for human centered health care. How can we reimagine our lives and our health care through the lens of the human experience. I think that's really important for us to start thinking about a simple shift in conversation, curiosity and intention can transform the way we show up as patients, caregivers, and clinicians, just recognizing that we're just humans sitting there in the office and wanting to have a conversation about our health. We will discuss how reclaiming your story in the medical system, bringing humanity back into care and designing and life of service. If you've ever felt invisible in the healthcare system or stuck in a life that doesn't feel like yours, Today you will learn language, perspective, and practical ideas to begin rewriting your story, reimagining healthcare by bringing humanity, empathy, and storytelling back into the medical systems, helping people reimagine their own lives, often through reflection, values and purpose, and emphasizing human health elements, the emotional, relational, and personal parts of health that typical healthcare often overlooks.

3:09 Eric teaches how to bridge system thinking his like his e MC squared structural approaches with deeply human, person centered perspectives aiming to change how we experience healthcare and how we live our lives within So what to do is challenge cold transactual medicine, advocate for relationship based care, and encourage clinicians and patients to build real human connection. In the exam room, I'd like to welcome Eric to the show right now, Eric.

3:50 Please join me. Hello, Angelis Hi. How are you doing. I am well, I am well. Thank you so much for having me. This is awesome. You've been on the show a sharp outlook before. Just tell us a little about you and what you're working on right now. Yeah. So my background is nursing. I've been a nurse for twenty two years now, and I was the burned out nurse who fell into the trap of falling into the system, a system that is not built for us, but built for different outcomes that we may hit on and found myself without compassion, without empathy, and out of shape in every way possible, and had a few perspective shifts that challenged the way I saw the world and thought and it led me on this amazing road to a self discovery.

4:53 But b how do we bring the human back. Into the system and how do we build systems with the human and the love it? And so that's that's kind of my fascination. That's what I bring to organizations. And it's almost like a resuscitation of the system and building it the way that it was supposed to do. Yeah. Yeah, And that's really interesting to me, you know, because I have loved ones that have been in medical care and they've even told me that they feel like that. You know, they've talked to three or four doctors and nobody heard what they said. They've never they never dealt with, never even brought up what they went into the hospital.

5:37 For or what they went to the doctor's office for. They just start looking at the screen and then just you know, rattling off things to do, and it's like, well, I've been doing all those things. You understand it's not working. You know, let me tell you what's going on in my life. And it's like, you know, they've got this little short time period that you can have that visit, and so next thing you know, you're just rushed out and you got to go, you have to go back because nothing was resolved or answered, and so that does feel it makes you feel like, you know, why am I here? I don't think I don't think you're addressing my health needs, so why am I here? And then we don't want to think the ugly thing like, Okay, so I have insurance, so you get to be paid, so that also gets paid, and then everything else gets paid.

6:28 But I have not been affected in the positive manner that I should be effected. But I don't want to think like that. Yeah, and you brought up the outcome that is, you know, when a system is built for a specific outcome, the system tends to create that outcome and it works flawlessly because that's the way it's built. However, the intricate pieces in between. And you brought up a valuable point of not being heard. That's that's a that's an innate human need is to be seen, to be heard, and to be valued. And if technology is taking that away, then the technology isn't set up in a way that enhances humanity.

7:16 It's set up for the system. So ultimately the question is how do we use technology for the sake of humanity instead of just for the sake of technology, and AI can actually bridge this gap and offer us more human to human time if we allow it to. And that's kind of the missing piece. Right yeah, because you know, I work with systems, so I know they're very cold, the very direct. Let's get from point A to point B and give you the results that you're looking for or explains why you didn't reach those results an event. I'm also a fractional CFO and director of finance, so I also know I'm looking for numbers at the bottom line.

8:00 So I'm related. I mean, I can. Relate with that whole process and that system because you know, I've written software and I know what the goal is is to get to the bottom line, to hopefully provide information so they can make better decisions. But how do you put you know, humanity into something like that. It's something we never ever thought about, and it's not been something that we've been taught and trained in the technical field. We just need to get the numbers, that's all right, And so I know how you can fall into that trap. But you know, being a manager also, I made sure that there was interaction with the people that was preparing all of that stuff.

8:44 And make an impact comfortable and things like that. And then even when the numbers didn't come out, I always tried to bring a positive spin to it, so that you know, everybody was a crush that they didn't meet their goals and objectives. Here's some other things that you can consider. Here's some other routes, you know, so I know we can think of something else. But when someone ask you what you do and how do you explain reimagining life and healthcare with human elements, you know, what do you say? Yeah, it's it's difficult because it's it depends on what journey and what position the person holds. But what came to mind as you were talking was we need to change the question. So like, ultimately, if I were to say what I do, I help people build sandboxes that welcome everyone to come in and offer their own five year old genius to bring that to the table. And what I mean by that is if we're asking the question, how do we maximize profit? How do we decrease patient time in an office in a hospital setting, and we're seeking these metrics, we're asking the wrong question because is what if we actually said how do we increase patient care and quality to such a degree that our efficiency and our effectiveness increases. And the byproduct then is increase profits, decrease patient stays, decrease negative patient outcomes, decrease avoidable costs

10:21 such as clapses and cauties and. So on and so forth. So simply in switching the question to how do we empower our people to become the best versions that they possibly can be, that then there's nothing else that can happen but improve patient care. And that question is not being asked. And when we ask that question, we start with empathy. We say who are we actually solving for? And then what are we actually solving for? And then how do we do it? But we jump right into how and we bypass the humans and involved to run the necessary steps within the system.

11:03 And when we do that, we take out humanity as a whole. And I bring in competency, like pure, true competency, because if we are competent in something, it means we no longer have to mentally think about it and our mind is now open to focus on the human in front of us. If I'm focused on how to do a skill, I do not have the emotional ability to provide what is needed for this person in front of me, because I'm still technically learning how to do a skill. And Joda spendsa says, we go from thinking to doing to be when I become this process. So as a nurse, if it's a skill that I'm required to do, if I know how to do it so well, my body knows how to do it so well, it's taking over and I'm now able to do this this autonomically and I can then be present and that little shift changes not only the care that I provide because I'm doing the procedure correctly, but it changes how it's received, and that reception, how we make people feel, shifts everything. And that is how we bring the human into this because it's the it's the person providing the task as well as the receiver, which is our customer, which is our client, which is the reason why we signed up for this in the first place, and.

12:34 We have been leaving them out. Ever since graduating whatever health help school that we graduated from. Right, we've learned system thinking without the human involvement. So we've taken the human out of our human service industry. Yeah, yeah, imagine that it is supposed to be. Yeah, the human is supposed to be the biggest feature of the industry, and yet you know, you have people feeling like nobody even heard what I said. They just ran through, you know, a list and told me to just go back and do this again and again and again.

13:15 And so that that's heartbreaking. And not only that, I think it probably affects their healing because they're they're they're feeling depressed, they're feeling down, they feel like, you know, nobody cares, and so that's not helping, you know, even helping the patient themselves. Was there a specific moment that made you realize that healthcare has lost something human about what they do and. I think you needed to do something about it. I think it was a culmination of many different micro moments that then. Created this micro or this macro shift. In me that I'm like, wait a minute, there's there's something going on. And then I start to doing research and I started paying attention. So as I've gone on this journey, human behavior has become very fascinating to me because how we act, how we behave is fascinating because it tells us what is driving our reality. And what I mean by that, you brought up something very crucial is when we do this, as we're currently doing it, we actually create a feeling of loneliness within the patient. Yes, loneliness is directly tied to survival mode, which is our fight flight or freeze. It is ran by cortisol, which is awesome when we need to outrun a bear, right,

14:47 but it's not very good when we're just going day to day trying to figure out what to do because we're shutting off our analytical mind or we're Amigla hijacked here and we're feeding our body with negative hormones, and this. We cannot heal. My body cannot heal. When it's being chased by a tiger because chances are if I don't outrun this tiger, it's going to be the tiger's problem and not mine. So that's the way our bodies are set up for. So after paying attention to how people react and not even respond, I started seeing these tailtale. Signs of kind of the trap or the situation that we're in.

15:32 And it wasn't just one moment, it was multiple moments, and it was how my body physically reacted when I started shifting and seeing a different world, same world, living in the it's Wayne Dyer said, do you live in a loving world or a hostile world? Same world. It's just what we're choosing to see. And as I started looking for the good, I started seeing good and my body started responding to that because now I'm decreasing this cortisol. I'm no longer in this self lonely place. I'm with community and.

16:13 I'm beginning to heal. And that was my first site into it was self discovery and then realizing, wait a minute, I have just been mirroring my environment. And that's another fascinating piece to this, because we mirror what we what are perceived reality is. But I saw a physician and this was the crucial moment. We had an eight year old come in and cardiac arrest. We heard the call come in and we uh the coat team. We went into the room and most physicians don't do chess compressions. They can, and they do, but most of the time we have a system, and this time this physician chose to do chess compression while he's leading the team and I look up in between this and I notice he's doing chess compressions and he's doing it very methodically, perfect textbook, but he's not thinking of the procedure of the chess compressions. He is actually providing emotional support to the family that's in the room with us.

17:20 And that was the moment that I realized, competency creates connection. Yeah, because he's not thinking about doing that. He's done it so many times, he's practiced, he's so proficient at it that he can now be a human to another human in need. And that completely. Shifted how I see education and how we offer education specifically in healthcare. Wow, that is amazing. Because you're right, and generally there's someone else doing it, and for them to just do that rotary, you know, without thought and still reaching out to that family because you know they're scared, they're.

18:09 Flying off the chart. And and so yeah, and to just give them that that that that comfort there that everything's going to be okay, I'm in charge, I'm handling this, Everything's going to be okay. You know that that that. Is uh, actually touching the human element right then and there in an emergency. That's that's what we're needing. There is absolutely so. Then the question becomes, how do we build this into our day to day How do we build this into what we offer and what we expect. You know, it's it's kind of like when you give a toddler responsibility, that toddler feels like worthy, they feel needed, they're excited to do that.

18:57 Well, we never really changed that. So what happens if we shift from mandating to from checkboxes? Do you have to do this to? Now, this is an expectation. You're an adult, and we're going to set this up in such a way that you're going to have the ability to practice. You're going to have just in time training, you're going to be able to become competent and everything that you need to become competent in. And the byproduct of. That is increase pation care, increased profit, better social ability across social media and media in general for the hospital system. And it's just asking different questions and offering different leadership.

19:39 And I'll say the leadership is true leadership and not just titles right right. Absolutely. You know many people feel like just a chart or a diagnosis. Yes, well in time slot, they you know, they don't feel like they're a person that you actually are interested in. What should it feel like to be truly seen as a person in a healthcare setting? It is a very good question. I think it has to meet the three elements that we spoke of earlier. To be seen, to be heard, and to be valued. So when leaving an office, leaving an encounter within the health system, it should be felt as.

20:23 Though I matter right and I'm not just a chart. I'm not just a number. I'm not just a fifteen minute block on their schedule today. But I'm genuinely receiving the care that I came in for. You know, no different than if I go in to purchase a coffee at Starbucks, I expect to get the Starbucks that I ordered, not because I demand that or anything like that, but because this is the agreed upon exchange. And I think. That's the difficult part is this is one sided, and it feels one sided. And to speak into this, a friend of ours went through a horrible situation. She lost her husband and it was a medical malpractice and two hospitals were involved. Not naming the hospitals, but after it happened, she said to her lawyer, if it was hospital A found to be negligent, I want to drop all charges.

21:34 When I walked in that door, I was made to feel like I was family. They asked about me, my kids, my family, how things are going. We developed a relationship. If they made a mistake, it was a mistake. It's forgiven. I'm going to let it go. If it's hospital B. However, that treated me like a number, like another person just walking in and out of here a paycheck. I want to press charges to the full extent of the law. Same situation, different feeling. One came at it from a humanity standpoint, the other came at it from a system and. Checking boxes. And think of the magnitude of impact these two organizations had on this one individual.

22:21 And again, same outcome. But like, this moves me every time I talk about it, because that is how we should be made to feel. We should feel like we belong, not as though we are coming in and being a nuisance. And because chances are we as patients don't want to be there either, right, Yeah. So I think that's ultimately that's ultimately it is. We want to feel valued and we don't want to feel like we're less than or devalued as the patient. Well, for those that are in the healthcare system and they're listening and they feel lost in the system of appointments, referrals tests systems, Where do they begin to reclaim a sense of control in personhood?

23:17 This is an excellent question. My wife and I actually just had a conversation about this, and. It starts with ourselves. So we tend were we as humans are habitual creatures, and we have to be because ninety five percent of our day to day activities is ran by our subconscious. It creates automations, so we don't have to think about it, like we don't have to think to breathe, we don't have to beat our heart. It does all of the important things. And the more we've learned, the more the habitual patterns allow. Us to continue to grow and learn. So as we even think about this, we're shifting out of subconscious and into our five percent cont mine And it starts there.

24:02 It starts with identifying. Wait a minute, we fell. Into the system of the system, of this pattern of system thinking. And how we shift that is we begin to shift our own perspective. So what have we been going into work looking for? And if it's if we're talking about it, and how we know this is paying attention to what we talk about. If we're talking about always being tired, always being overworked, hating our job. The list goes on and on. That's exactly what we're going to find because our mind wants to do two things and wants to keep us safe. And make us right. And it's going to make us right. So if we shift that to say, today I'm going to go in and there's going to be at least one person I get to help. We're looking for someone to help, and we already shifted this, and the moment we do, we're going to get this endorphin, this dopamine hit that that is an earned dopamine, and we're going to.

25:01 Say, oh, that was good, and we're going to do it again and again and again. And that is the first step. And as we do that, as we start shifting self, then we can actually look up and we're out of survival mode and we can start looking around us and saying, oh, how can I now this new me help in this situation. And and it doesn't matter where you are on the higher archaeel level, a leader is a leader no matter where you are, and a leader is simply meaning someone else will follow you if you take the first step. And so then. We get to become the leader that we never had or the leader that we that we actually need.

25:43 In our life. And and so starts with self and then and then it starts the journey of external which is which is a different path. Well, we all know that clinicians are under pressure. I mean you can almost even feel it when they walk in the in the exam room. Yes, you know they're under pressure about the time, how much time they can spend, the billing, the burnout, you know, the cost, you know all these things. And how do you talk about human centered care without appearing that you're ignoring the realities of all this stuff that they're having to go through.

26:24 Yeah, it's an interesting concept because our current reality. Is a gift from our past self. The current reality in a hospital, for example, is a gift from the past hospital setup. And so getting out of this, seeing the current reality and into the possibility is the way that we create change. And that is difficult when we're stuck in this habitual pattern, in this habitual loop of wake up, go to work, come home, go to sleep, wake up, go to work, and this rinse and repeat. So there has to be elements of us stepping outside of that, but also understanding that that yes, there are times where you know a patient is going to get really upset with me, but it's through this journey learning that you know it's not always about me, and this patient is simply voicing emotion, voicing through emotions this feeling of being out of control or undervalued or all these things that we listed earlier. So one of the greatest things we could do is breathe. And I know that sounds crazy, but as these as we find ourselves in these patterns, we're actually in survival mode.

27:46 And survival mode. Is we talked about being detrimental, but the one thing we cannot do in a true fight or flight is calmly breathe. So if we force ourselves to calm we breathe, we're actually telling our body you're fine, We're fine, and it shifts out of amignal of hijack and back into our analytical mind and then we can actually start thinking. So currently we're in this reactionary period of just one reaction after another, and it leads to exactly where we are now. So in order to shift that, we have to stop and then figure out a different way. And that's difficult, especially when you hear and see the current reality of what has led you to feel the way.

28:39 That you feel. Yeah, you know, I was just thinking back good because I'm as a very young woman, I had a terrible case of all sort of colitis, and I was It was so bad that I was in the hospital at least three or four times a year. He would shut off me eating any foods and I'd have to be fed intravenously because the colon was so ulcerated and ruptured and constantly hemorrhaging and things like that. It was just really terrible. But before we had all this technology and all of this, I had this one doctor and he was always so concerned.

29:25 He was always so kind. He was always you know there, you know, making sure because he knew I was scared. But he was always. Comforting me, always making me feel like, whatever it takes, I'm going to make you better, whatever it takes, we're going to get there. The road might be long, but we're going to get there. And he gave me the trust, he gave me the confidence to hold on because I used to even think, you know, if I got to live like this the rest of my life, you know, hey, let's just check out, okay, right, you know. It's my time. Just take me. And I even wrote him a lo and I can't do this anymore. I can't take it anymore. And he said, we have some new things happening. Hold on just a little bit longer, and by gosh, there were some new things, and I started feeling better.

30:13 And I found out. About some natural pathic things and I haven't had another episode in over thirty five years. And so I'm really really glad that he was there because it was so tough to go through all of these different medicines and the hospital stays and you know, different things. And back then, you know, at the time I got it, they didn't even know how to really treat it because it was kind of new and didn't know I think they didn't know that the immune system was overreacting and things like that.

30:54 But it was like my body was being consumed from the inside. But I still saw that humanness in him, you know, And I do appreciate, you know, how he treated me. But you know, I do see where there doesn't seem to be enough time to actually write what's going on and different things like that. So what changes do you think are really possible right now? And what changes require actual structural and policy shifts because a lot of business all this structural build up for the profit margins and policies and not understanding you know what, we have a whole lot of people that are part of this system too.

31:48 You have to include them in the thought. Process of the structure of the organization. What do you think is possible right now? Oh? I think that. I think the possibilities are endless. But if I were to be specific on a few things. One, we so going through your nursing school, we learn the systems of the body. Medical school goes into even greater detail, and we learn system by system. And we also so we treat system by system. Instead of treating the whole the whole person. So holistic medicine to me is in five years we will be treating the whole person. I think we're already shifting into that. And and you let into that the natural path, like, there's validity in that.

32:39 I've experienced that. There's many people that I've talked to that have experienced that element. You know, the let thy food be thy medicine, thy medicine be thy food is not something that Hippocrates just said. There's truth behind it. So how do we bring that in and I think we will. But so just as we learn and treat the human as different systems working into one system. That's the way the hospital is ran. That's the way healthcare is ran. It's ran one system, one siloed system at a time, and it's not holistic. So I think if we start treating a holistic person holistically, then I think the hospital system, the healthcare system will start following in that path, but it starts with a different mindset. I also think that if we shift out of the industrial revolutionary way of thinking about education of me sitting for hours at a time, following someone else's direction and then considering, consider me competent in what I just learned.

33:50 Because I took a test on it. I think if we shift that and you give me the material to let me play with it and let me fill in my own knowledge gaps. The way that I would fix plumbing at my house, for example, I would look up a YouTube video and say, okay, cool, I can do that, and I would do it. We can do this in healthcare as well, And this is the way we actually learn. We don't learn through sitting through didactics, and so anyway, if we allow that in real time. Then it's going to allow me to be present with my patient instead of we're no longer going to be practicing medicine because we practiced before we went in to do the skill of the task, or whatever the case may be. And I think that is the first two elements. And then the third is when we make policy changes. We have the people that are in the work that are going to be graded quote unquote graded for these policies, in the production and the creation of the policies, and importantly, run it through simulation. Let's simulate this new policy in the simulation center in the simulation lab, and.

35:08 Let's see if it actually works. If it doesn't, let's change it then and we've already tested it and it's going to go out and it's going to meet the needs. So ultimately, it's shifting the way that we're seeing the problems. We're changing the questions, and we're restructuring to a way that actually works and bring the people in. And then AI is not going away. It is here to stay and is going to keep advancing. Grab a hold of AI and ask yourself, how can we use this to increase human connection time quality time with our patients, and how do we use AI to automate those things that can be automated, because that's exactly what it's for. And I think starting with those which I know is they're all really big. Starting there helps shift our trajectory onto a new way of thinking, a new way of treating, and a new way of being as a healthcare system.

36:10 Yeah, I was just thinking, you know, I was just sharing that story and made me feel good to share it with you. I was just wondering how important is a patient's story in their care and what gets lost when that story is never heard. So Ever since the beginning of language, humans have. They have. Expressed themselves to story. Why because through the story, I could put myself in that story, and I already empathize with you as you told me that story, I was you in this story.

36:53 I was feeling that this is this is human connection. So if we are taking this person's story away, we're doing two things. We're minimizing their value, their perceived value, and we're also removing. The human element behind it. And maybe it's on purpose. Maybe it's because after a while, there's only so much that a human can take on, you know, from a negative stories of others. But if I know your story and I am already bringing empathy into that situation, I'm already going to provide better care simply because I understand where you've been. I may not know and it have experienced it, but I can relate because I've been through my own trauma. I've had my own diagnoses. I've gone through this, and I've seen the dichotomy of how it was handled really well and how it was handled really poor.

37:54 So I can we can put ourselves into the story. I mean all of the sacred text all all of the sacred texts they use story parables why because we can, we can put ourselves into that. And I think. Story is is the greatest communication tool both the patient and the caregiver. Mm hmmm, yeah. Absolutely. How can people use different diagnoses or health scares to realign their lives and start because like you said, what is it the fight or flight kind of thing? You know, you get a difficult diagnosis, You're going to have that flight thing going on asolutely, So how can you how can you how can you realign your lives when when you you know, people have those difficult times.

38:52 I will start off by saying It is great to have someone supportive in your corner. For me, that's that's my wife. She is a she's amazing. At at realigning my thoughts onto, away from the scare and onto let's let's think about it, right, So from this amigo hijack into the analytical. But even if you don't have someone like that in your corner, it's it's starting with. What is this teaching me? Five year olds are the most curious beings I've ever met, and curiosity leads to overwhelming, amazing shifts in our life because when you are curious, you cannot judge, and when you cannot judge, you're actually seeking solutions, and solution focus is it's like life giving. So starting with okay, what is this tea you mean? So, for example, Louise Hey treated thousands of people and what she came up with was her own system of how our emotions actually translate into physical ailments or illnesses.

40:17 And this is. Fascinating for me because as a Type one diabetic who was diagnosed almost thirty six years ago, that just studying. That taught taught me a lot about how I see the world and what this is teaching me. But it's it's also. I mean, this goes into many different aspects into the spiritual being, but asking like, even in this, how can I serve? So how we respond to situations affects those around us, and that has the power to shift the room.

41:04 So yeah, and it all starts with a breath, because a breath can shift us out of this fireflight. And into our true self. I'm not sure if I answered the no, no, no. You did. Definitely you did. I was just thinking, you know, when you just said you had a type one diabetes. You know, a lot of. People kind of think about their diagnosis as who they are instead of what they're going through. And because you hear advertisers on TV and this, that and the other kind of some of those advertisements are pretty negative in my opinion, they start having this sense of you know, oh, I'm this, I'm that, I'm the other, which makes them start feeling down on themselves and very negati and.

42:01 Probably bring in about anxiety. You know, how do you help patients realize it's just a diagnosis, it's not who you are, it's just what you're going through. How do you help them separate that? So it's and that is fascinating and this starts with back to what we were saying earlier is an understanding of self. So I first have to understand that this is the way that some people respond and react, and they take on this diagnosis. As an identity, right, and that's ultimately what we're saying. So the greatest example of this is, Okay, have you ever like wanted to buy a new car, and let's say it's a red car, and all of a sudden, after you made that decision, all you see is this red car everywhere.

42:53 It's it's what is in our focus. Well, the same thing happens when we take on identities such as the diagnosi. So when we say I am or create this as this. Is who we are, all of a sudden, we put our attention on this and it's focused more and more and more, and so all of these negative aspects that you said that you know, come on on these commercials sometimes or what is highlighted that becomes our focus. And that is actually what we begin to see. Even though the other ninety nine percent of the greatness behind this, outside of this identity, is still in this reality, we don't see it because we only have five percent of our mind, our conscious mind focusing, and it's focusing on this red car, it's focusing on this illness, it's focusing on whatever the case may be, and it drives us further and further and further into that. So I start off with saying, look, this is not who you are, just like the car you drive is not who you are, just like the clothes you wear is not who you are.

44:05 And I think it was Bob Proctor that said, you know my hand. I don't say I am hand, No, I say this is my hand. Right. I am is a spiritual, emotional, and physical being and one that is who I am. It's it's a essence, it's it's not a piece. And the diabetes is I'm not. I will never say I am and fill in the blinks with that, because that's not who I am. It just is an aspect of like an extension of me. Right, And and sometimes like I don't even I don't even think about the illness or the disease or the whatever you want to call it, because it's not my focus and it's not that.

44:56 And it's this is very similar topic to. When when C suite level healthcare employees ask, well, you're asking me to get rid of the policies and negate the policies. No I'm not. I'm asking you not to put your attention. On it because I'm not going to do away with the treatment for my for the diabetes that I live with, but I'm not going to put it ahead of everything else. It's going to be the byproduct because I take ownership of self care. So therefore the byproduct is the diabetes is care for. Right, just like in the healthcare system, someone taking ownership, they are enrolled into this process.

45:40 They are going to take this with such care that the byproduct. Is they own the policies and procedures because it's the outcome of everything else that they that they've improved and done. And so answer your question, yeah, it's starting off with saying, no, this isn't who you are. It's a part of your life. And just like all changes in life, you can a learn to live with it, learn to adapt, and learn to be you in that. And I think maybe that's the lesson, is learning to be ourself in the chaos, in the trauma, in the difficulties.

46:25 Yes, well, tell our audience, so before we run out of time, tell our audience how to get in touch with you, especially some of these, like you say, c suite some of these leaders to get in touch with you to maybe find out how to maybe consider how to. Make some changes in the structure itself. No one's saying that you're not going to be managing the metrics, and you're not going to be following the regulations and you're not concerned about finances. All of that can still be done at still have a human element in the care So tell tell the audience how to get in touch with you.

47:07 Yeah, there's a few different ways. The easiest way is you can run to my website it's emcconsult dot com or email me at Eric at emcconsult dot com. I'm also on LinkedIn and Facebook, so any of those, all of those, Yeah, please reach out. Because the design sprints, the rapid design sprints, that is. Design thinking done in one hour. Increments can shift how we offer processes in our system. But it doesn't bog down time.

47:49 It doesn't take a lot of time to make positive influential change. And and so I offer those and it's all based with the foundation of everything that we talked about. So bringing this to the table and how we. Create this beautiful behavioral economics of creating a playground for people to become themselves the best versions of themselves, and offering patient improvement and staff improvement in the process. Right right, absolutely, And that's the key part of this, just just reimagining what would healthcare be like. Yes, did make the focus the human element and then the metrics, you know, all the finances and the metrics and all this stuff that's always going to still be there. And there's yes, adding humanity into it. It's not going to change what you're going to build that's build in. It's not going to change you know, the metrics that you have.

48:50 It's not going to change your regulations. Everybody's following the regulations. It's just bringing in an element so that you you joined the medical field because you wanted to help people, yes, but you have to think of them as humans and bring that humanity in it to really help holistically, you have to help them, right, So this is the way to do it. This is the way to do it, Eric, Yeah, I agree. I agree. And so we want our listeners to first off, if your patients, let's start getting getting involved and talking about what we can do to get you know, have some kind of advocacy to say we need some changes in healthcare, and it's more than just how much it's costing, but how well it's being delivered. And Eric, as a person that you can contact with these great ideas to bring humanity back into our healthcare so that we're not so scared and we can get better and we can get the treatment that we all feel that we need. So Eric, thank you so much for being here today. I really appreciate that this is important to me because, like I said, I have family members that are going through a lot of turmoil right now and changing doctors and things because they just felt they haven't been heard. So this is

50:22 y personal to me and I know either that are out there. Yeah, I greatly appreciate it. And I mean, what would happen in these new diagnoses sessions if the staff had a kit ready to give you that had all of the necessary equipment for you to play with, for you to scan QR codes, to watch video of your healthcare professionals teaching you calming your nervous system, because ultimately that's what this is is a nervous system like irritated. So how do we call your nervous system to where when you come back, you feel connected, you feel heard, and you feel like the education that you were provided.

51:05 Was exactly what you needed in the interim. And so this is the step into It doesn't take a lot more effort on our part as healthcare providers, but the impact that it has to create a sense of being seen, heard and valued from the patient is phenomenal. And this is part of the MRX. Ecosystem that I suggest changes cultures and the patients are part of that system. They're part of the culture, and let's bring them in it and let's start beating with humanity. Yes, let's bring in the Ubuntu. I am because we are in the community and like, why not?

51:48 Yeah, why not? Well, thank you everyone for joining us today. I know that this podcast has been very enlightening. And again this is a sharp out Look. We're here every Monday at eleven am Eastern time eight am Pacific time. We have been. Informed and as I always say, stay informed. I want to thank you for joining us on a sharp Outlook. We have been informed and energized to take the next steps. We have posted links to websites and videos to learn more on today's topic. Please join us again next week for another thought provoking conversation right here on Key for HD radio and.

52:37 Talk for TV. Listen to the podcast on All the podcast apps, and until next week, stay informed.