"How is our patient satisfaction?" I asked a Vice President a week after I began as CEO of Riverside Methodist (pictured*), still Ohio's largest hospital, in 1983.

   "It's okay," he said proudly. "…slightly above average around the 70th percentile." Then adding a deadly line, "In other words, if it ain't broke, don't fix it, right?"

   "Why would it be 'okay' to be just slightly above average, Bob?" I asked. "Would you want to tell anyone, 'Come to Riverside. Our patients say we're slightly above average?'"

   My goal was not to shame but to send this message: "Okay" cannot be the standard for any caregiving organization. Caregivers do not have the luxury of offering care that just slightly tops average. 

   Gladly, Riverside became way better than average. Within a couple years we had reached the 90th percentile in patient satisfaction and sustained it for the next decade. By then, I had also founded OhioHealth and soon we acquired (or rescued) Grant Medical Center. Today, OhioHealth's RMH is a gleaming example of not just okay but high level excellence. What a privilege it was to lead that organization for 12 years.  

   Not everyone, especially the suffering, views life as a privilege. If you do, consider the daily question Chris York, President of CEO of Dallas Presbyterian, poses: "Why get out of bed to be average?"

   This is just one reason why Chris is such a great leader: "Okay" is not okay and must not be the status quo. He likes to quote Vince Lombardi: "If you strive for perfect you'll catch excellence along the way."

-Erie Chapman 

*Photo of Riverside includes proposed new women's health center.