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Throughout her career Sylvia worked closely with senior managers to develop and implement organizational vision. Much of her time was spent coaching and developing leaders to master themselves and to practice caring science. She was also responsible for leading improvement in patient family centered flow projects and promoting a caring culture to enable organizations to make progress on their journeys toward living the Institute of Medicines’ Six Aims – safe, effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient and equitable care. Sylvia witnessed the stories you read about and saw on television taking place where she worked. She read newspapers. She watched the news. She was active in professional healthcare improvement organizations. And, she listened to patients. She also heard the voices of dissatisfied nurses, doctors and other staff in healthcare organizations. Each perspective revealed a part of the unfortunate truth – healthcare does not provide the value that a patient is seeking from it, nor does it always deliver the outcome a patient is seeking. For over 10 years Sylvia dreamed and discussed with many coworkers concepts for a new kind of healthcare, one that added value to patient’s lives, a healthcare that would offer a comprehensive system of continuous healing relationships. In October of 2008, she was attended a meeting at a resort on the Atlantic Ocean. Walking on the beach, watching and listening to the ebb and flow of the water, the dream, the vision of a new kind of healing healthcare was uppermost in her mind and heart. When the meeting began, the host hospital asked each meeting participant to take a “local treasure” from sand filled boxes. There were sand dollars, starfish, many other shells as well as plastic gold doubloons (symbols of the gold pirates left in the ocean) visible in the boxes. Sylvia took a plastic gold doubloon as a metaphor for the money she would need to build a healing hospital. Later in the day, after making a purchase in the gift shop, she was given a one dollar gold coin as part of her change. Highly unusual! One rarely sees gold coins in circulation. She took it as a sign - a sign to actualize her dream. The next morning sitting on the balcony overlooking the sunrise on the ocean, she wrote a promise to herself and to humanity to build a new model of healing healthcare. Within two months she left her job at a community hospital and devoted herself to making the dream a reality. Sylvia was pretty sure many would think her crazy. However, what others thought was not important. She talked to everyone who would listen or expressed an interest – physicians, nurses, administrators, directors, physical therapists, radiology technicians, patients and friends - about the vision, the new kind of healthcare. Many responded enthusiastically and offered encouragement. Some wanted to be remembered when jobs open up to work in such a system. Others volunteered to be part of the Integrated Medicine Board of Directors to develop and evolve the vision. BodhiCare™ is the emerging form of a new model of healthcare. Watch us grow. Milestones are listed on the home page. |
Sylvia Bushell, MA, CPHQ, is founder and Chief Executive Officer of BodhiCare™. An integrated care system has been a dream of Sylvia’s for many years. Like many people she pieced together alternative therapies and allopathic medicine over most of her adult life. In October of 2008 she decided to follow her dream and create BodhiCare™, an integrated system of acute and ambulatory care that promotes healing relationships between caregivers, healers (physicians and nurses), patients and the community.