What you see above is a Weber Grill, 27000 btu of grilling power! Why am I showing this to you? Well, it's because that grill arrived at my door a few weeks ago, one of those splendid awards that Asante provides their employees upon a multiple-of-5-year anniversary. Mine happens to be 35 years as of today. I can say in all honesty that it's gone very quickly.
Last week a barrista asked me where I worked and if I liked my job, and it came out of me without pause or thought: "Yes, I love my job." I love the challenges, and I love the people I'm privileged to work with.
A few things have changed, of course. When I arrived to start work on night shift at Rogue Valley Memorial Hospital, the reputation of our across-the-town competitor was better than ours. They were known as the high-touch place, we were known as the high-tech place. Of course, people were choosing where to go based on the "touch" thing unless their condition dictated that they absolutely had to have the technology. We've long since turned around that perception, and we are now both high-tech and high touch. The government outcome data regarding patient satisfaction supports that statement. And I know also from conversations around town with people that I meet that there is earned pride in working for Asante. In fact, that same barrista replied, "Well, that's the hospital that I would go to if I needed to, for sure."
The hospital has afforded me the chance to grow and accept new challenges. From night shift staff respiratory therapist, I advanced to supervisor, then to my current Director of Rehabilitation Services position. That job morphed into a regional director job, and along the way I became a nursing home administrator to manage the Transitional Care Unit which was our first venture into an inpatient rehabilitation unit. That unit only lasted a few years until the reimbursement methodology for skilled nursing facilities changed, but it was a sort of a precursor to our Inpatient Rehabilitation Center which is now approaching its fourth anniversary. I'm now privileged to act as Program Manager for that unit, in addition to my broader duties as Director of Rehabilitation Services.
It was a different world when I started. In fact, 1976--the year that I started at RVMH--is the year that Apple Computer was incorporated and Microsoft was one year old. Telephones had wires, and many people still used rotary dials. New studies indicated that fluorocarbons from aerosols were depleting the ozone layer, exposing people to increased risk of skin cancers. Home video technologies of VHS and Betamax were intensifying their competition for the best way to view movies at home. There were serious questions as to whether or not theaters would survive.
Medford did not have a mall; we often traveled to Eugene to do "real" shopping. The area west of Providence Hospital was bean fields up to Biddle Road. There was a "Big Y" intersection and store roughly across from the current mall where Hwy 99, Hwy 62, and Front street intersect. That store was one of the big shopping venues, similar in concept to Fred Meyer but locally owned (and now defunct). The area around our current RVMC was relatively unpopulated.
The economy was on the ropes in 1976. Inflation was 5-6% and seemingly continuing to rise. Unemployment was approaching 8%, but southern Oregon was still prospering with the timber industry dominating the economy. The decline had begun, however, and timber harvests have fallen steadily since that year. Meanwhile, Intel built its first plant in the Portland area and the focus on computer technology as a basis for economic development took hold.
A postage stamp cost 13 cents, and you had to lick it. Jimmy Carter was elected president. The Concorde flew the Atlantic 3-1/5 hours faster than any prior commercial jet. Roots was published.
Statistics: 35 years equals 1,829 weeks. Subtracting vacations and so forth, that's 8,374 work days. That translates into about 21,000 cups of coffee on work days, at my rate of consumption.
During this time staff have started their careers with us, and stayed on for decades. Many, many students have passed through our departments. We've lost some employees to illness, many more have married. Children have been born, and in some cases the children have come to work for us, too. We've had marriages physically in our departments, and at least one baptism (of a quadriplegic) in our pool. Too many holiday parties to count, and many, many acts of selfless giving. It feels like a huge, connected family.
Within a couple of months of starting work here, while getting off duty one morning around 7 a.m., I walked out the door into a bitter cold. In those days the airport would seed the fog clouds to open the airspace for take-offs. So it appeared to be snowing, and the ground was covered with a layer of frozen white. The night xray tech was walking out the door with me. I had moved here from Arizona and this was a new experience for me. I blurted out, "We've been flocked!"
Her reply stuck with me: "Was it good for you, too?"
Yes, it was, and it still is.
I cannot think of a better way to spend my time. Looking back, I can feel the accomplishments and the good we've done for individuals and the community. I'm incredibly grateful for where I live, and where I work.
Onward!
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