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2010 Humanism in Healthcare Awards
Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey Honors Dr. Richard Panush, 36 other champions of humanism in healthcare; Trustees Joanne Weinbach and Adam Perlman, MD, co-chair Annual Event
MILLBURN, NJ (July 19, 2010) – Thirty-six honorees, their families, friends, and colleagues, listened with anticipation as co-chair Joanne Weinbach welcomed them to HFNJ’s 2010 Lester Z. Lieberman Humanism in Healthcare Awards Event on Monday, July 19th at the Hamilton Park Hotel & Conference Center, Florham Park. “Many of you in the room tonight are friends and partners, whose front-line efforts make our work so rewarding”, she said. “Your strength, your vision, your compassion, and your sensitivity are invaluable components of our shared efforts to reduce disparities and provide the best care possible. We applaud you all.” Dr. Adam Perlman, M.D., Executive Director of the Institute for Complementary & Alternative Medicine at the University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) and Director of Integrative Medicine for the Saint Barnabas Health Care System, spoke to the challenges involved in delivering quality, compassionate healthcare. “When I think of humanistic practice I think about selflessness,” he said. “When we step into the room with a patient, we have the responsibility to put aside our personal problems and make that patient a priority – to truly listen and connect with them as completely as we can.” Dr. Richard S. Panush, Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine at Saint Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, is the 2010 recipient of the Lester Z. Lieberman Leadership Award for Humanism in Healthcare. Dr. Panush was recognized for his ground-breaking humanism at the bedside and humanism in ambulatory care programs, in which he systematically incorporates literature, art and poetry into the daily rounds of every one of his internal medicine residents, discussing them in the context of the patients they see. In accepting the Leadership Award and describing the impetus for his work, Panush said, “We considered that there was nothing more essential to medicine than caring, than empathy, than compassion, than respecting our patients….” Although initially skeptical about the value of the program and their ability to incorporate it into their already grueling schedules, Panush quoted his residents as now saying, “A single word of encouragement from a doctor can turn desperation into hope and motivation….Medical humanities puts everything in perspective; each patient could be a parent, each child could be yours….The good doctor needs to look at each patient with the eyes of a painter, listen to them with the ears of a musician, analyze their emotions like a poet….We think more often these days about what we do for our patients and how it affects their lives…we take more time to ask about and reflect on the unique journey of each patient.” The HFJN awards program was instituted by its board chairman, Lester Z. Lieberman, and other founding trustees, to recognize the principles and vital importance of compassion, empathy, respect and cultural sensitivity in the delivery of healthcare. The award was re-named last year to honor Lieberman’s leadership role at the HFNJ and his vision for quality, compassionate care. Local public hospitals, nursing homes, and nursing schools are engaged in the awards program nominating process. That process results in the recommendation of dozens of remarkable individuals who make a difference in the trenches of patient care, people whose jobs range from orderly, HIV nurse, and volunteer coordinator to professor of nursing and nurse midwife. The leadership award winner is selected by the Foundation staff and board of trustees. Lieberman said, “One thing that we have learned above all else is that healthcare goes much beyond fighting disease and infirmity. It is first and foremost about people. It is about helping people faced with chronic and life threatening situations maintain their hopes and their dreams and stay connected to their families, their community, their work, and their dignity. It is about healing in the truest sense of that word.” Tonight’s honorees are “the true heart and soul of healthcare,” he told the audience.
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