We started our journey to implement CPOE in 2010 and had various Clinical Strategists assigned to our project. After about the 3rd one, David was assigned to my site. Well, I thought, here is another one……….. I was told that he will come on site to meet us, be updated, and together we will come up with a strategic plan. So, he arrived and I thought I will spend a few hours with him then he will do his own thing as all the others had done. Little that I knew!!

Not only did I spend all of Monday afternoon with him, but all of Tuesday, Wednesday and part of Thursday! We walked all over the hospital, I set up impromptu meetings with a lot of the department heads, and we visited pretty much every unit. David did not leave one stone unturned. I was not prepared to spend all week with him, but had to adjust, as he just didn’t go away!

By the time David left, I had a detailed strategic plan with many upcoming workflow meetings, many more meetings to set up, a full calendar for the weeks that he was onsite, and work for when he was not here. My head was spinning and I was so happy when he finally left. As I told my story after having overcome my exhaustion, I started to describe my experience with him as “He is like gum on my shoe, he just doesn’t go away!” He even asked me when we were taking a brief break, which didn’t happen often, “where are you going?” I replied “to the bathroom, want to come there with me, too?”

Over the next several months, “Gum” was not only gum on my shoe, but also on the shoes of the nurses who were helping me with the project, my lonely “Gum” days were over. David, aka “Gum” grew on all of us, as he was truly a valuable asset to the project and we learned so much from him. When we were about to jump off a bridge, he just pushed us a little further to get over it and move on.

We had an awesome CPOE implementation after many workflow sessions with a multi-disciplinary team as well as physicians. I am very comfortable saying that it would not have gone as well without having had David. He built a great rapport with our physicians, especially with our physician champion and helped us move the project along. In 2011, we began our journey to PowerNote house wide and IView house wide. When we were told that we have a few hours in the contract for a Clinical Strategist, we immediately thought of David and requested him. However, he was tied up at another site and was unable to assist us in person, but was made available for phone calls. So, even though we had the option to have a strategist onsite, we rather opted for calls with David as we were able to run our own workflow sessions after all we had learned from him.

We are certainly missing our “Gum” days and wish him the best. David is a great resource. He’s very knowledgeable and certainly a people person. I hope we will be able to work with him again.