Leading healers to exceed

Extract

The greatest leadership sin is to remain passive in the face of challenges. —Toby Clark

“Now what?” I asked myself. At the time I was the assistant pharmacy director at Sinai Hospital of Detroit and had just been appointed acting director until the permanent director of pharmacy was secured. I was one year out of my residency and a graduate student with the summer to devote to the operation of the hospital pharmacy. I was “as green as a stick” and did not have much of a clue about so many things. The outpatient supervisor, pharmacist Lester Atkins, told me he had his area covered, so we would have no problems there. But in the inpatient area—oh my … so much to do! We had just started an intravenous admixture program and 24-hour services. So I decided to call one of my professors, Robert L. Ravin, who at the time was a member of the ASHP Board of Directors and director of pharmacy at St. Joseph Hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Mr. Ravin was very generous with his time and advice to me. He told me to call him regularly, work to solve pharmacy staff problems, and hold on for just a little while longer until the new director was hired. I called him more than frequently, got the staff a raise, hired several more pharmacists, and could not wait for fall semester to start and have the new director in place. This business of being the director was exasperating work! As promised by hospital administration, a new director of pharmacy was hired—Robert B. Williams. I was ecstatic and very relieved. Soon I found out that Mr. Ravin was a consultant to hospital administration and was very involved in the recruitment of Bob Williams. What a lesson in politics, faith in one’s fellow man, and building self-confidence for me. Mr. Ravin was advising me what to do on one hand and consulting with hospital administration to support hospital pharmacy on the other. Wise Bob Ravin was certainly right, Williams was a leader and a change agent.