If you can’t do the little things right, you will never do the big things right.

WO-1 Jim Mason, Phu Loi, Republic of South Vietnam

Walk a path with me…

It’s 1984I’m a very innocent 13-year old boyThe phone rings and my ‘Hello’ is met with…

“This must be Derek. Son, my name is Master Sergeant Benavides and I’m a friend of your Dad. I’d like you guys to attend a ceremony at the White House. I’m going to be

presented an honor and this day is happening due to your father and many other heroes who either never returned from Vietnam or did but haven’t been seen since. Get

your Dad for me.”

My response was several moments of silence followed by a confused walk to find my father. My thoughts along the way were ‘who is this and what is he selling?’

Dad entered the room and he took the phone with a “Roy, how the hell are you?” he closed the door. Sometime later, Dad appeared and quickly went to his workshop. I had seen the look before so knew to respect the need for space.

This time though, a different door had been opened

Later that day, I met a very different man in my father, one I’d somehow been shielded from…a man who had emotions, different and distant eyes and a searching for answers…a man with a past I had no concept of. A man of clear mind but a torn soul, granted not a victim. This is a man living in two worlds. I cherish this door being opened, as he is the man fashioned from the proud, quiet professional mold.

I held his hand and cried with him but had no reason as to why

As my Father opened up over time, he explained that he couldn’t necessarily describe his own story without telling the story of the heroes he served with, among them Master Sergeant Roy P. Benavides. MSG Benavides was a proud, quiet professional and recipient of our nation’s highest military award, the Congressional Medal of Honor. Former member of 5th Special Forces Group, Military Assistance Command, Vietnam Studies and Observations Group – MACVSOG - B-56. A man with an incredible list of personal honors who held himself as both warrior and caring mentor.

MSG Roy Benavidez

I grew up seeing Dad in his ‘business suit’…- Flight suit- Class-A’s with the ‘fruit salad’ row of awards and silver wings- Those slick aviator sunglasses, which he received during flight school in 1966

that I now protectively wear- The Seiko watch picked up in Southeast Asia which I was handed years later- His briefcase in the form of a faded green flight helmet bag with the

mysterious ‘128th AHC - Gunslinger 33’ patch- Humble but Cool as a breeze

I held no realization of just who this man was or what he did during his frequent departures. After all, my focus was on school, sports, girls and cars (not always in that order).

Through the years, I came to truly know this man as much as anyone could other than my mother and fellow returning veterans; deepening my respect for him, his profession and the heroes among us…the battles that live on after their service.

To this day, my parents, my wife and my children are my ultimate heroes but for entirely different reasons

Words of ‘Duty, Honor, Country & Integrity’ were common topics of discussion but if not more important, that in each of us lays a responsibility, a sacred badge of honor and an importance of living to a high standard. Doing the right thing, living with a badge of honor and a code or ethos, especially when it will never be recognized. These traits establish a deep level of confidence and commitment to others for later times, should they enter your life.

As I grew more comfortable in asking about ‘those days’ (which evolved into my father serving many years past his 20 year retirement date and our time in the service overlapping), he educated me on many topics ranging from the hilarious to the unspeakable. He spoke of the blood coursing through my veins and the responsibility of doing everything possible to generationally, ‘strive to be better’ for yourself and our future blood lines…stories of a relative serving in WWI as bi-plane pilot combatting through means of pistols and grenades, a female relative who served as a Nurse in France during WWII, uncles serving in WWII and returning home with mustard gas and ‘shell shock’ ailments. My wonderment grew but it all served to increase my interest to one day perform my duty and walk along with others from this mold.

- “Dad, what got you home when almost 40% of your flight class didn’t make it home from their first tour?”- “How did you execute the mission, fly this boulder of a machine (aka, helicopter), monitor multiple communication lines, place ‘heat’ on the ground for the troops in contact, in a combat zone our government states we’re not operating in while not losing control given the understandable terror?”- “What allowed you to remain an ‘operator’ for those many years, ultimately retiring as the oldest Army Aviator on active flight status?” Some of his last training missions were with elite Navy SEAL elements so the standards were high throughout his career.

His response (outside of mentions of sheer luck and the selfless service of his brother and sister service members)…

If you can’t do the little things right, you will never do the big things right

I enlisted in the Army at 19 as a helicopter gunner/crew chief with aspirations of testing myself. I had to do my part and live up to my own grand expectations. Throughout my years in the service, I received letters from by parents, sending words of encouragement to endure and place focus on the little things. I also was humbled to receive letters from MSG Roy Benavides…envelopes including the impressive Congressional Medal of Honor Society emblem and leadership letters focusing on following ‘Duty, Honor, Country’ as he and my father had. I will always recall the look of amazement from my Drill Sergeants during mail call when MSG Benavides’ letters were received, “Mason, why in the hell is one of our nation’s heroes writing you?” I was made to read those letters to my fellow soldiers while they either pushed ground (push-ups/front-leaning rest position) or stood at the position of Attention.

I eventually served as a Commissioned Officer and am immensely proud of the leadership development, confidence, dedication to detail and composure this provided me. I’m saddened to say that I too have seen the results of close friends and their families affected by war.

What value can I garner now as a civilian?

After my time in the service, I entered the healthcare industry. As I near my twentieth year in this sector, whether serving as a tech product evangelist, advising with health network executives or collaborating with Primary Care Physician’s the question commonly arises, “how can we get our community of patients to engage?”.

I find myself commonly relating to my fathers experience with the challenges faced by today’s returning combat veterans and their family members as they navigate Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and combat related conditions. Although the term has changed over time, by labeling patients are we causing them to immediately show a disinterest in engaging for care treatment? PTSD is a different beast but much like other conditions (cancer, erectile dysfunction, irritable bowel syndrome to name but a few which have established ‘labels’), why would a patient want to engage if they’re pre-labeled as having something ‘broken’? Service members are a proud group with a tendency to divert focus on anything perceived as a weakness. Truth be told, they just want to return and hope that things can return as normal. They don’t expect family to understand it, only accept it.

We must remove the barriers of entry, treatment and involvement. Civilian or military, care must be patient-centric and connected care-coordination.

If you can’t do the little things right, you will never do the big things right

But...what are a few of the little things?

Value the PatientI have had the opportunity to collaborate with brilliant people, many of whom are physicians and care providers, to develop innovative healthcare solutions for some time now. Yet, given the focus on the technology revolution that exists within our industry, we must refine our focus on patients as consumers. Keep in mind this is more of an approach discussion than it is a revenue discussion…think of the patient as a consumer who has a choice regardless of if they truly do.

- Approach the patient in a hospitable fashion- Treat them as you would a respected family member- Provide care with a touch approach, rather than detached

Think of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement Triple Aim…

- Improving the patient experience of care- Improving the health of populations- Reducing the per capita cost of health care

But, let us add the dimension of improving the physician and care provider experience while providing care...in a consumer-based environment.

Break Down BarriersWant your health systems, physicians, care team members and patients to be engaged and involved? There is very little true integration between medical technology platforms (my father is being prompted to manage 4 patient portals, across primary care, the Veteran’s Affairs & specialists streaming detached data). So, by designing, promoting and through Meaningful Use Stage 2 and other compliance initiatives, holding hospitals and eligible providers accountable with engaging (electronic communication) certain percentages of patient populations (not to mention that they are also accountable for a certain percentage of their patient’s to view, download and transmit their health records), ask yourself “have

we done the little things right?”. Are silo data warehouses centered on the health system, physician or technology platform (rather than the patient) really the building blocks for future success?

As patients interact with their Primary Care Physician, specialist, nurse, billing office, family member or in some instances, their insurance company or employer they will not have interest in detached data warehouses that are centered on anything other than the patient. If you want patients to be involved, let them be center and provide tech and care providers to approach them as a consumer who has a choice.

Fail Fast and Succeed SoonerThe Toyota Production System focuses on two concepts: First, ‘jidoka’ which can be translated to identifying what works and when inefficient or ineffective items arise, we stop to make refinements or fixes. Second, ‘Just-in-Time’ which means we produce only what is needed, when it is needed so that a continuous flow can occur.

How does this equate to doing the little things right?

The tech world has largely embraced lean software development, which adapts the Toyota Production System to create a pro-lean Agile methodology. I’ve found success in involving customers from many demographics early on during concept design, prototype creation, prototype testing, pre-release testing and post-delivery audits. The end result is to deliver quality solutions, then manage to continually identify value-lacking or poorly designed products, services, manufacturing and delivery processes so they can be optimized.

My Request for Your DedicationWhy are patients (civilian and military) disinterested in engaging? Why are we facing physician attrition across our nation? How can technology meet the needs of the healthcare community? Quite simply, we have built disconnected tools and been short sided on our approach to patients.

We started with the big things before establishing a strong foundation in the little things

Before you call me naïve, give it a try…for the sake of our patients, family members and those who live with misunderstood and unneeded labels.

In closing, my father recently handed me a treasure I’ll proudly pass along to my children one day. A thick binder which contains the personal and quite painful interviews of those who witnessed Master Sergeant Benavides ‘6 hours in hell’ which occurred near L c Ninh, South Vietnam onộ May 2, 1968. These files served as the interviews to substantiate his heroic acts, leading to his receiving the Congressional Medal of Honor. For those many heroes among us, whether military or personal heroes, we must get the small things right. Otherwise, we risk future generations who come to realize their hero is living with natural emotions but a torn soul.

By: Derek Mason

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesderekmason