“Clients do not come
first. Employees come first. If you take care of the employees, they will take
care of the clients.” – Sir Richard Branson.
Its 2.15 am in the morning (and 4.20 am by the time I
finished penning it down) and I just can’t stop thinking and thanking my stars
for how lucky I feel to be a part of Dr. L.H. Hiranandani Hospital, an
organization that has given me the opportunity of a dream job so early in my
career and at a young age of 29. In the last 4 months that I have been part of
the organization, I have received uninterrupted support and encouragement from everyone
at the hospital, right from the top management, the Human Resources &
administrative department, all the consultants, the nursing team, purchase
department, housekeeping staff, security, etc to set up a department which I
thought the hospital deserved long time back.
I have no shame in accepting that the Kokilaben Dhirubhai
Ambani Hospital where I did my post graduate residency from has the best ‘functional’
emergency department in western India, but with the kind of work that we have
been able to do at my institution over the last 3-4 months, we have successfully
set up a state of the art Accident & Emergency department, ready with its
infrastructure, documentation & the SOPs, medications, equipment, etc.
There would very few people on the planet who would say that
they love their ‘job’, they look forward to Monday mornings and that their boss
is good. Well, I’m among those few who have their passion as their job and even
a single day spent away from my work place now makes the day seem incomplete.
I still remember my first 3 months at the hospital. We have
an 8 bedded (+2 OTs) A&E now, which was known as casualty then. Every
morning when I used to come to work, I would see that out of the 8 beds, 6-7 of
the beds were always occupied with patients for Intravenous therapy,
Electroconvulsive therapy, Endoscopies, Ascitic tapping, urine catheter
insertion and removal, rectal enemas, etc and we were dealing with very few
real emergencies. I wondered then that if that is the kind of emergency department
that I’m going to work in, I don’t think I’m going to stay for more than 1 month.
It was only at the insistence of and counseling from Dr. Anurag Naik (our Medical
Director) that I decided that I should settle down first and then think about
bringing about the radical changes slowly.
I used to work from 8 am till 4.15 pm, come back home by 5
pm and get back to work again from home designing all the paperwork and forms,
sending emails, making phone calls and it used to become a regular routine
wherein I was working till 10 in the night, just to set up the department I can
now boast of.
It really was a proud moment for me when I presented the
overview of the emergency medicine as a specialization and my A&E department
during the clinical meet in January in front of 60-80 doctors from the hospital,
including the top management, and receiving a big round of applause from the
audience and special praise from Dr. Sujit Chatterjee (our hospital CEO). “You really
have done a commendable job Mohit, hope you continue to keep up the good work”,
were his exact words which still keep ringing in my ears, motivating me further to
fulfill the high expectations that everyone has from our department now.
The ambiance at the work place, recognition for your work, the
appreciation by your superiors, a cooperative management, the feeling to be
wanted, etc are important aspects why an employee would love their place of
work and the company or the organization. I’m amazed to see that there are so
many doctors, nurses and others who became part of this Hiranandani hospital
family right from the start of the hospital and never left!!
Apart from our constant endeavor to provide the best and quality
treatment to all our patients, I feel that this hospital is so much lively
unlike the previous hospitals I have worked with or seen. Luckily, I joined at
a time when the sports day and the annual day were just around the corner and I
won a few trophies. Winning and losing is only a part of such events, most
importantly, I made such good friendship and bonding with many people in the
hospital whom I would have never even met during routine days at work.
To garnish the overall last few months here, was an
opportunity to be a part of a singing group for a performance on occasion of
the 12th anniversary of the hospital. An exceptionally vibrant, full
of energy song, ‘Hall of Fame’ was chosen by our CEO. It still gives me goosebumps
thinking about how we came about from the day we had just started practicing to
where we ended, it surely was an exceptional performance. We still continue to
have a whatsapp group where we still talk about our performance and are already
planning for another rocking performance next year. (Dr. Chatterjee Sir, if you
are reading this post, I want to say that I’m just amazed and in complete awe
of your dynamism and energy levels, and that you surely have a fan following. It
really would not have been such a rocking performance without all your inputs
during the rehearsals.)
I also received an award called the Care Award 2015- for
caring beyond THE ORDINARY. It was for the 1st time in the history
of the hospital that ‘a doctor’ had received it. I really could not control my
tears and the emotions while our CEO read out a feedback email from one of my
patient from the large screen on the stage, in front of a strong crowd of 1200-1500
hospital employees and guests, which included my parents.
To conclude, thank you God, and thank you Dr. L.H.
Hiranandani Hospital for giving me this platform. I plan a long term career at
this organization now, and with everyone’s support, guidance and motivation in years to come, will
work with even more commitment and hard work to make the Accident &
Emergency Department a jewel in the crown of the hospital.
P.S: Like most of my articles on this blog since 2008, the
post was not to glorify my work or achievement. It was to capture in time, my honest
opinion, emotions and the feeling racing through my mind, and to express my heartfelt
gratitude towards a great hospital and everyone working here for all their
love, support, motivation and recognition that I have received in the last 4-5
months. Also, the adrenaline, dopamine within and octane levels were still running
high, 2 days after an electrifying hospital anniversary and I thought it is
better to pen down the memories than to just smile thinking about it.
