Gratitude is worth saying out loud. This month, St. Vincent leaders share their thanks to our medical staff and the many teams who make our work possible.
Chris Strear, MD, Chief Medical Officer:
I want to take a minute and express my gratitude to Jeff Rentz, MD. The first one-on-one meeting I had with Jeff was outdoors. We were walking down the block, and my shoelace kept coming undone. It’s a problem with these particular shoes, and really with a number of my shoes. My preferred style seems to favor slippery laces. Around the third or fourth time, I stopped and bent down to retie my shoes, Jeff shared a life skill with me that his mother teaches to all of her very young students. The bunny runs around the tree and goes into its hole twice, not once. At least that’s how I remember it, and that’s how I now tie all my shoes that have slippery laces.
It was a little thing, just a moment, but it literally changed my life. I think about this moment two or three times every week now as I tie my shoes and head off to work. Jeff’s moment of kindness on our walk had an outsized impact on me.
Our physicians and APPs work hard in high-impact, high-consequence, stressful situations every day. They show up on weekends and in the middle of the night in service of others, irrespective of what might be going on in their own lives. For that, they all deserve a tremendous amount of our gratitude. But as we head into the holiday season, I want to say “thank you” especially for the small acts of kindness you perform – to our patients, our other caregivers, to those of us in administration, and to each other, every day, usually without even thinking about us. The big acts are important. The big acts are lifesaving. The small acts define our culture. They are why St. Vincent is a uniquely wonderful place to work, and why it is a privilege to be a part of this community of clinicians.
Thank you all for your acts of kindness, every day, big and small.
Richard Lammers, DO, Chief of Staff:
As Chief of Staff, I have the privilege of seeing our hospital from a unique vantage point, and from here, one thing is abundantly clear: we are a family. Our physicians and APPs bring brilliance and compassion to every decision. Our nurses and techs carry us through the longest nights and the hardest days, often with a steady hand on a shoulder when someone needs it most. Our environmental services team works quietly behind the scenes, making sure every room is ready for the patient who needs it, and our food services team proves daily that a warm meal can heal almost as well as medicine. I am grateful beyond words for every one of you.
Like any good family, we’ve had our share of chaos! We’ve weathered the 3 a.m. codes, the “quick question” pages that were not quick, and the coffee machine that always seems to break on the busiest day of the week. But we’ve also shared the potluck lunches, the hallway fist-bumps, and the quiet moments of knowing we made a real difference in someone’s worst day. You are the reason this place feels like home, even when the hours are long, and outcomes sometimes look bleak. Thank you for showing up, for caring so deeply, and for letting me be part of this family. I couldn’t ask for a better one.