A couple of weeks before the Christmas break, I made an unscheduled stay at Calgary’s Peter Lougheed Health Centre Emergency ward. It was an experience of organized chaos that had me reflecting on lessons learned over the years in business. Keep in mind that this was the tip of the iceberg for a very bad Influenza A season, meeting up with physical fractures from recent snow and ice accumulation and those in mental health crisis for whom the holidays are no celebration of any kind. While there, the waiting list for a bed for those who had been triaged was at 70, with another 30 patients in the pipeline. It would only get worse; “Camp Lougheed” had been set up in an area previously used for Covid-19 isolation. For all the heartache that Covid caused, it did provide valuable lessons in how to “scale up” to meet increased and unforecasted demand. Paramedics were directed away from other full hospitals to Lougheed, not because of bed availability, but because they could pass off their patients to ground support without waiting with them in a hallway for hours. In other words, like the restaurant business, the key to success is how quickly you can turn around tables. That’s not meant to trivialize the seriousness of the situation, rather, it sculpted my thinking throughout my stay as to many more business parallels.
On a transportation and logistics note, the dedicated staff at Loughheed was able to avoid bottlenecks and keep the system working. In business, time is only money; in health care, it’s life or death. EMS and ER intake coordinators did their best to ensure that if there was a wait period, it was after, not before triage. After my stay, the administration would impose time limits – four hours – to admit or discharge.
Oxygen is the most monitored vital. If you don’t have capacity there, you’re not leaving the infirmary. That was my particular priority. My intake level of 77 required an initial support volume of 6 litres of oxygen, so I couldn’t help but think about businesses that run on a shortness of breath. How long can they last? Worse yet, they haven’t invented an enterprise finger clamp that will provide a business reading.
We work a lot with not-for-profits and charities for whom a successful fund development program is critical for sustainability. Yet most of the programs we see (exclusive of cap-ex projects) still rely on “events” and significant contributions from large philanthropists. I was given some oral medication, but by and large, the treatment was anti-viral IV drips. Like the slow and steady rebuilding of my immune system, the IV drip is important in fundraising. It could be starting a planned giving or endowment fund, or a monthly subscription program, or both. Does your not-for-profit have an IV in place to supplement your operating costs or build up your capex account?
The quality of the decisions doctors make is determined by the information they have at hand. If you listen in on a triage or initial examination, the questions are not complex but revealing: “Do you know where you are? Why are you here? Where does it hurt? Is it a throbbing or sharp pain? Is there anything else that does not feel right? Do you have any allergies? Now keep in mind the attending physician has already reviewed everything the database and online sources can provide; however, their actual treatment plan is very much dependent on a real-time mental and physical assessment. They’re determined not to miss a key symptom. Similarly, we can imagine what challenges a business faces based on a review of its financials and a study of its market. Yet without taking the “pulse” of the client, we risk making a situation worse. This is where AI alone will never be the answer.
Teamwork in the ER is vital. Understaffed and overworked, the ability to tap a colleague on the shoulder with a “can you look after that for me?” is critical to getting the job done. Businesses need to cross-train so that if one employee isn’t available, critical functions can continue.
I was amazed at the depth and breadth of database management. Every single activity was scanned into the system and time-stamped using my wrist tag. So, nursing shifts and attending physicians could come and go, but what they did and, more importantly, why they did it was captured digitally. Most clients we work with have a CRM/ERP program, but few are managed with the discipline that’s drilled into ER medicine.
Finally, when you’re stuck in a hospital for three days, you learn the power of patience. With patience comes greater assurance of the best care possible with less stress on providers and patients alike. I don’t have the statistics but I would submit that more mistakes are made in business by moving too fast than too slow. It can be difficult not to succumb to others’ expectations.
As I said earlier, this was not meant to be a frivolous take on the great work being done by our front-line health care workers, but rather an appreciation of how business can respond to its challenges in 2026.
Mark Olson
Managing Partner & Principal
