One of my favorite things about working in DC is the morning drive in from Alexandria. That may sound strange to some of you, but I spent about 10 years driving in Houston with very little to see except more traffic. One of the things I see as I drive in is the scaffolding on the Jefferson Memorial and I noticed that some of the dome on the memorial looks cleaner than the rest. I saw an interesting story on the local news a few nights ago about the process that they are using to clean the dome.
The discoloration on the dome is a coating called biofilm – a thin layer of algae, fungi and bacteria that has been growing for over a decade. To find the best way to remove the staining, the National Park Service tried many methods including 10 different chemical solutions. My first thought when I heard about the biofilm was that you would treat it just like you would any mold or mildew found around the house with some bleach, but that technique was found to damage the marble and make it worse in the long-term. What they found worked best was a painstaking process of using a laser on a small area at a time. It takes much longer than simply spraying the whole thing with bleach, but it preserves the Memorial much better for future generations.
In every organization, there are issues that need to be worked on – things like communication, transparency and accountability. Some are very straightforward and just need to be done ASAP and some are more about finding the right way to fix something, so as not to destroy something else. In medicine, we talk about the concept of “primum non nocere” – usually attributed to the physician’s oath and often translated as “first, do no harm.” Physicians are taught to be very careful not to hurt a patient needlessly when trying to cure an illness. It may hurt to get a shot, but the benefits of the medicine or vaccine should clearly outweigh the momentary pain. As a leader, one of the things I want to do at URAC is help in the areas that need work, but not compromise the fantastic things that we guide people to do every day through our accreditation. Some of our growth involves having the right work belong to the right people, having people improve their skills, or breaking down barriers to collaboration. Some of our growth will be new or simplified products to improve our customers’ experience. Trying to find the right pace to work on things may be frustrating at times and, from your view, you may not feel like it is moving fast enough, but I want you to know that every day the leadership team is trying to clean another area, so we can make an even greater difference in health care.
Thank you for being on our team while we all work to make URAC better and improve people’s lives in the process.
