64% of the primary healthcare providers that we surveyed in Los Angeles last month said that their practice has become so chaotic that they were afraid that they might miss something important or an important test. Combine that with the fact that 49% of doctored surveyed in 2008 said that they were either going to see fewer patients or stop all together within 3 years!!! It was such a wonderful privilege to bring a message of hope to those providers in LA last month. As a nation we need to look at reinforcing our healthcare workers. We need to equip them with the tools that they need to thrive when times get tough. Today I am in San Francisco getting ready to do a presentation to the employees at Epocrates. I am eager to give this presentation; I've been looking forward to doing it for a long time. As a company, they really understand what it means to put the customer first. They have taken the time to understand the world of the physician and they have, time after time, come up with features that are spot on, features that really meet the need and help us to deliver better care. Today I am going to focus on the power of an engaged team that chooses to be empowered and put others first,

Location:Howard St,San Francisco,United States

Seth Godin recently posted a 45 minute master class session on his blog that is well worth the 45 minute investment! He discusses the barriers that keep us from taking risks and being successful. He is primarily talking about "business" but many of the concepts that he presents apply equally as well to overcoming the difficulties that you are facing in your personal life. If you want to leave a legacy despite the challenges that you are facing, grab a cup of coffee, pull up a chair and listen to this:

After listening...

I've never really had to deal with this before. To be honest, I've had a difficult time bouncing back from Haiti. Usually when I come back from a deployment I just bounce back. This time I have been in a bit of a funk. I'm really not sure why. Perhaps it was the amount of gruesome physical trauma that I saw. In any case, sorry that I've not been writing more. I do feel like I'm getting back now and I plan to increase my writing and I'm still planning to do a web/telephone meeting in the very near future. I will put a notice up as soon as I nail down a date and time.

I just returned yesterday from a Board meeting for Children of the Nations. It was so exciting to hear what is going on in the lives of our kids. We have kids in Sierra Leone, Malawi, Uganda, The Dominican Republic and now in Haiti. The stories are amazing! I will share some of these in the days to come.

Tomorrow I'm going to meet our Governor to receive an award for our work in Haiti. It really seems strange to get an award. All I wanted to do was help. The way I figure it, God reached out to love me and heal me; it is the least I can do for others.

Melanie Thomas put this show together. She has some tremendous photos that I just saw for the first time today. Mel was a wonderful member of the Medical Teams International team that was on the ground in the early response to the earthquake. She spent a bunch of time at King's Hospital sorting out the supplies and organizing the supplies that came in. She is one of the type of people that doesn't scramble to get in the limelight. She just gets busy doing the tasks at hand. Wow, did she work hard! She was such a blessing to the team! The show that she put together will move you and bless you. After watching it, please consider the questions that I've posted for you by clicking "read more" below.

Here are a couple of questions to get the discussion going:

Haiti continues to occupy a tremendous amount of my energy, both consciously  and subconsciously. In fact, I think that most everyone that was on our early team is still processing this disaster. I'm still having some dreams and wrestling with what I saw. I'm processing it on a couple of different levels. First of all I'm still very concerned about the long term health issues in Haiti. They have a long, long way to go. I am confident, however, that progress is being made. I'm encouraged by some of the plans that I've been told about and I don't feel that it is a hopeless situation. It is just going to be a long term struggle.

The other way that I'm processing the experience involves us. I can't help but ask myself, "What if it happened here?" That is good discussion for us to have. We need to be ready both from a physical, structural and procedural basis. We also need to be ready from a psychological basis. That is one thing that very few people talk about and I will address it in a new blog series entitled "How to Become Unshakable in Tough Times".

For now, let's take a look at what you can do from a physical, structural and procedural perspective. There is the check list of things that we can do to be ready from that standpoint. Here is a list that I lifted from the FEMA earthquake website:

I just came across this broadcast from AM Northwest featuring two of our team members, Journalist David Michael Smith and Physical Therapist Kathi McCoy:

Now the tears are starting to flow in Haiti.

Photo: Lynsey Addario for The New York Times

When I was there originally the entire country appeared to be numb. They had to be; they were in survival mode. Now, according to a fantastic article by the New York Times entitled "Haiti Emerges From Its Shock, and Tears Roll", the emotions are finally starting to surface. I would encourage you to read the article and ponder it. It is good for us to stop and think about these thing and what we value. I know that I certainly look at things differently after returning from Haiti. I'm no longer having such intense dreams but I'm thinking a lot about what's important.

These are some of the photos of my experience on the front lines of Haiti during the first couple of weeks after the earthquake. (Warning: some of these are graphic.)

Now that I've been back for a couple of days I thought I would share my heart with you. Perhaps you would like to know why I went.

It has occurred to me since my return from Haiti just over a week ago that there are two ways to look at major disasters. One can look at it from the perspective of Google Earth (the satellite view) or from the perspective of Facebook (relationships and networks with people) .

 

Since I've returned, a lot of folks have asked me how they can help. If you text the word "HOPE" to 25383 it will send $10 to the folks at Medical Teams International (you can do it more than once if you like). If you would like to donate a larger amount, please visit their site at www.medicalteams.org. Thank you to all of you that have supported the work in Haiti. My biggest fear is that we will move on and forget. There is such a tremendous need. I'm still having dreams every night.