Endorsements
“No industry depends more on engagement and on employees being connected to passion and purpose, than healthcare. Knowing that you are making a difference in the lives of others is key to creating positive patient experiences and good clinical outcomes. The stories and reflections in these pages not only inspire us, they show us what real caring looks like in action. They show that, even with the challenges our system faces, there are so many ‘flames of goodness’ in healthcare. It’s up to us as leaders to keep those flames burning bright. Thank you, Thomas, for this excellent book.”
— Quint Studer, founder of the health care consulting company, Studer Group
“Having worked in healthcare my entire career, this book served as an excellent reminder that we must always stop and do a reset….we cannot continue to do what we always have done. Healthcare is complex and changes daily…our mindset must also adjust.
Everyone has a compilation of life stories…we take them with us wherever we go. They are a source of happiness, sadness and can call up fear from past experiences. Being the patient or the patient’s family member can release unheralded emotion that can greatly impact a healthcare experience. As caregivers, we must ensure that our words and actions help mitigate those fears. This book inspires thoughtful contemplation of the patient relationship and interactions that influence caregiving.
Tom shares the story of his own experience, and how he navigated those months of care. He pours out his heart regarding the vulnerabilities he felt, even with the presence of a caring wife who is also a nurse. You could clearly feel the angst from his physical pain and worries brought forth from the emotional pain.
His story more than illustrates the great need to take the time to establish a relationship, explain and explain some more, and above all, do all things in kindness. We must give options and provide education that is over-simplified for even the most understanding person. Tom reminds us that we can be the change we want to see in healthcare. His thought provoking stories serve as a checkpoint of how we are doing and where we need to be in terms of patient-centered care. It begs us to think of how we want those we serve and love to be cared for.
I would love to see this book utilized as an education tool for anyone in healthcare – physicians, nurses and ancillary staff that take part in touching patients’ lives while helping them steer through the intricate world of healthcare. Tom reiterates over and over how his personal experience with his physician and wife helped him feel that his plan could work to overcome the odds in his illness. You will read this book and know that above all else, kindness and compassion matter in healthcare and in life.”
- Jennifer Bowe, Clinical Director, Nursing, Little Rock, AK
“Every so often you read a book that really makes you think. Also, every so often, you meet a person that really makes you think. It is a lucky and rare blessing to combine the two. Thomas’s book is one of those rare books that not only makes you think but also makes you feel.
I know Thomas and consider him a friend. Thomas is the kind of guy that when you spend five minutes with him you feel infinitely better about yourself. So how cool is it that he wrote a book? Now you can spend a few hours reading his book and walk away not only feeling better but being better.
You will walk away from this book knowing more, feeling more and wanting to be more. I can’t recommend this book highly enough. We need a book like this these days. I wish there were more people like Thomas is this world.
Enjoy. Learn. Your heart will thank you.”
- Rich Bluni, RN, National Speaker and Author of the book, Inspired Nurse
“Tom shares the story of his compelling journey through our broken healthcare system, inspiring a call to action for those of us who want to make healthcare all about health and caring. I can think of no better person than Tom to inspire us to this great calling with a keen sense of urgency and compassion, connecting head and heart to truly make a difference in the lives of patients.”
- Mark Hussey, President & COO, Huron
“Through his courageous vulnerability and terrific storytelling, Tom successfully takes us on his journey through the healthcare system as both a patient and a leader, exposing flames of good within the system to be fanned and areas in which only together can we improve. His style is familiar (like an old friend), his insights brilliant, and his call to action one we all must heed. Join Tom on his journey and together let’s improve the healthcare system for all.”
- Jackie Gaines, Studer Group, Author of “Believing You Can Fly”
“In a time of seismic disruption in health care, From Heart to Head & Back Again offers a much-needed, highly readable and enjoyable call to action: to double down on the human aspects of care that make patients feel known, understood, and cared for.
As TD points out:
Physicians pledge to honor the Hippocratic Oath, which includes the statement “ ... warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon’s knife or the chemist’s drug.” Yet we do not create systems that allow for a focus on warmth and sympathy along with an appropriate balance of surgical, pharmaceutical and other medical /behavioral interventions.
This speaks to the “dis-ease” that is plaguing our health care system: the price we’ve paid for clinical medicine’s unswerving focus on empirically provable metrics, at the price of its cultural dismissal of “what real people want”. While patients absolutely honor science (and appreciate that good clinical care is job #1), we crave a system that’s aligned with what we know in our gut (and with what 1200 stories from patients and families shared with PVI affirm): as human beings, we value trust, accountability, respect and relationship above all. We never forget how people made us feel.
We at PVI believe that focusing on respect, accountability and compassion will drive unknowable gains in safety, patient outcomes and clinician satisfaction, arising from a system in which everyone is positioned to thrive.
Dahlborg’s book makes a personal, eloquent, and impassioned case for leaders to step up for this premise. For any organization looking to win the hearts and minds of patients in the 21st century, and to co-create a more functional, human-centric system of care, this book is a must-read.”
- Pat Mastors, President, Founder, Patients’ View Partners, Former News Anchor / Medical Reporter, WPRI-TV
“From Heart to Head and Back Again ... a journey through the healthcare system is a provocative work that is part manifesto, part autobiography, and part manual. Dahlborg offers us a transparent view into his transformative conversations with his quality improvement teams as a health care leader and moving conversations with his clinicians and wife as a critically ill patient. These diverse but synergistic perspectives offer us a glimpse into the “how to’s” of building relationship-centered care that has the potential to reduce costs, boost outcomes, and transform our healthcare system from a place that too easily harms to a place that heals the heart, body, and spirit. This book includes reflection and discussion questions after ever chapter and is “must read” for all healthcare professionals and leaders journeying to improve the quality of care of their patients and quality of life for themselves.”
- Michelle Segar, PhD, MPH, Director, University of Michigan’s Sport, Health, and Activity Research and Policy Center and author of bestselling No Sweat: How the Simple Science of Motivation Can Bring You a Lifetime of Fitness
“The tell-all book aptly titled - From Heart to Head and Back Again … - is a peek into one man’s healthcare journey that begs the reader to take part, to reflect, to ask and to answer questions as a way to improve today’s healthcare system.
Whether you are a patient or a provider, Tom Dahlborg will cause you to join the ‘troublemakers’ to propel the movement to improve the patient experience.
A healthcare journey written from the perspective of both a healthcare leader and a patient whose passion for improving the system will ignite your desire to look inward and do the same.”
- Pat Rullo, Speak Up and Stay Alive Radio
“Tom's book From Heart to Head and Back Again - a journey through the healthcare system is going to change the lives of every person in healthcare that is given the blessing of reading it. Tom is a part of the healthcare system. He knows the industry from the business perspective and also the caregiver perspective. The vulnerability he gently and passionately suggests to the reader will take them on a journey outside the bounds of our current healthcare system. This journey will cause each reader to create positive change to heal the collective brokenness of healthcare. It was an honor to be asked to read this book and it will be my honor to witness how it will affect the way we treat our caregivers, how they provide care: for themselves, their families, and us.”
- Kristin Sunanta Walker, CEO, MHNR Network, Host, Mental Health News Radio, CEO, everythingEHR: Behavioral Health Technology Solutions
“Tom’s book is troubling, inspiring, and thought-provoking all at the same time. It’s troubling to think that two experienced health care providers – Tom and his wife, Darlene – had such difficulty navigating the complexities of America’s health care system. It’s inspiring because of their tremendous love for each other and their faith that sustained them through many difficult years trying to find help for Tom to return to the person he had been. And it’s though-provoking to consider what role each of us can play – must play – to fix what’s broken in our health care system. It will take a new relationship between patient and physician, one of mutual respect, compassion, and commitment to healing. It’s going to require a lot of conversations. Fortunately, in this book, Tom has already provided some of the important first questions to begin a dialogue.”
- Kay Kendall, CEO, Principal, Author of Leading the Malcolm Baldrige Way: How World-Class Leaders Align Their Organizations to Achieve Exceptional Results
“Over my many years of working in, studying about and trying to change the health care system in the US, I have on occasion stumbled upon the notion of a different kind of medicine: first, in the late 60s and into the 70s, “holistic” medicine with the notion of an alternative to Western Medicine which is still young in the big picture of healing. From the 70s into the 80s, this transformative thinking shifted a bit to “Wholistic” or whole person care. Then, when the wife of a wealthy publisher had a “non person” experience in a San Francisco hospital, the notion of healing environments raised a 'new' and revolutionary idea: make the locus of care a place of healing. This was Planetree.
It's been decades and the efforts to change what's not healthy about our “non system” in America has long been a struggle to make significant inroads in how we deliver health care, with the emphasis on care.
I have had the privilege of building a health care administration program at the undergraduate level, after more than a decade in my work in hospital administration. While my own experiences were frustrating when wanting to change the 'system', the creative curriculum attempted to inform my students about the tasks of doing health care in the 'right' way. Most listened with interest and attention, but none more than Thomas Dahlborg.
Thom Dahlborg has taken the mantle of caring, compassionate and whole person medicine to a level rarely seen in today's complex and fragmented health care system. As with some of us, when we are faced with challenges and setbacks, we can be motivated to make changes. As a Husband and Father, and a patient and leader, Thom has been shining a light in dark places. His personal experiences as a patient have inspired him to inspire others. His is a journey of courage and commitment, of presence and love, of caring and transformation.
Thom has graced us with his story in his book: From Heart to Head and Back Again. But more than that, in his writings, he lets us into his personal journey and struggles which serve to establish a poignancy that is rich with lessons and opportunities. His stories inform and educate; his leadership is a beacon for providers and patients alike. His messages – that of sharing, empowering, caring and presence – are timeless, yet we seem to have forgotten them. Thom involves the reader and prods us to be fully reflective. Thom's writings inspire us to be better, do better and in the process, bring about a “cultural competence” that can truly be transformative.
One of the biggest struggles when we are ill is the fear, the loneliness, and the sense of uncertainty that can become overwhelming. Thom's work and writings, born of his personal journey, gives us hope that we are not alone and that we are all connected by a bond of trust, empathy and love.
It is with great admiration that I offer this brief note, which is insufficient for Thom's amazing embodiment of a model of transformation. I would be remiss if I did not lift up the support and care that his wife (“Doc”) and children have been for him. In many ways he was not alone in this journey, and his work lifts us all to that insight.”
- Craig S. Higgins, Ph.D. Associate Professor (retired), Health Care Administration, Stonehill College, Easton, MA