Dall-Ass Tex-Ass
This weekend I attended the 34th annual NAHAM conference in Dallas. NAHAM is an acronym for National Association for Health Access Management in case you didn’t know. Having never been to NAHAM I didn’t really know what to expect. I am glad that I made the trip, because I made a lot of contacts with access professionals from across the country and received a lot of good information about projects I am working on.
Our hotel, right next to the Reunion Tower
Our flight left Salt Lake at 6:10AM Saturday morning. In order to make the flight I had to be out the door by 5:00, which meant a 4:30 wake up call. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem, except that the Jazz were playing game 6 of their series again the Houston Rockets Friday night. The game started at 8:30PM, and after the game I was completely wired. Needless to say I didn’t get to bed until late, 2:00 to be exact. You might think that I should have skipped the game, but that would have been an impossibility. The Jazz won, of course.
When booking the flight Denise had requested an aisle seat for me both ways. I didn’t get my request on the way down, but it didn’t matter. The flight was half full (or half empty, if you want to look at it that way) and I had the row to myself. I stretched out and put my ear buds in, and before we were at cruising altitude, I was crashed.
After touching down at DFW we picked up the rental car. We had asked for a vehicle big enough for six people plus luggage. They gave us a mini-van. We demanded something better and got a nice, brand new Excursion. As the designated driver for the weekend I was very happy with the upgrade. I did have a bit of a scare, though. I lost the valet ticket at some point. I panicked, thinking that anyone could have picked it up and stolen the car. After verifying that the valets still had my keys I asked that they not give the vehicle to anyone redeeming the ticket, so that only I could get it with photo ID.
I made out like a bandit on the room accommodations. I traveled with five women. They decided that in order to save money on the trip they would get two rooms: a suite for the five of them to share and one for me. They were in tight quarters, sharing beds, while I had two queen sized beds all to myself. We were on the 21st floor of the Hyatt Regency. People were impressed that we were on the higher floor, but that really didn’t mean much, since there is no view. It’s Texas: completely flat as far as the eye can see.
Saturday afternoon we attended the University symposium, a special session of NAHAM dedicated to the unique challenges faced by University Health Systems. I had the chance to share with about sixty people some of the things that I have been a part of, giving ideas of how to implement at their facilities.
The symposium was very positive except for one incident. A woman from New York was talking to the group about a challenge that she had at her facility. It seems that she had been charged with a policy on how to register transgender persons. If we bill a claim with someone listed as a female, as the patient claims she is, and the insurance company has the patient listed as a male, the claim would get denied. Living in SLC, we haven’t had to address this. Yet. The woman with the issue said “We’re near ‘The Village’ if you know what I mean. So we get a lot of ‘those people’.” There were some chuckles around the room. Then a woman spoke out about the issue pointing out that she was a transgender person and that she took offense to the other’s comments. It kind of put a damper on the mood, and I could tell that the moderators were glad that it came right at the end of the symposium. It turns out that this transgender person is a co-worker of one of Donna’s old friends, so we did get a chance to visit over the weekend and she’s very nice.
That night we attended a reception for ‘first-timers’ as we had been labeled. Of course Donna and I got into a competition. We always do. We hate to lose out to the other in anything. The first competition was to take 3 minutes and talk to as many people as possible, finding out their name and something about them personally. Though it started out as a game (which I won, of course) I found it to be very useful, and got me more comfortable making contacts with people over the weekend. I brought 50 business cards and came home with none (at least none of my own).
After the reception we took a walking tour of downtown Dallas. We visited the book repository where Lee Harvey Oswald shot President Kennedy. We walked down to the street to see the ‘X’ painted at the point where JFK’s car had been when he was shot. And of course we walked over the grassy knoll.
X marks the spot...
Without the JFK Memorial...
And within.
Since it was the Saturday night before Cinco de Mayo they had street concerts and events down on the old West end. We wandered through and took in the night life and had a great time.
NAHAM sponsored a morning walk each day at 6:30AM. Nothing big, just 1 mile. I didn’t make it to any of the walks. 6:30 Dallas time is 5:30 my time, and there was no way I was interested.
Sunday morning was kicked off with a presentation by Fred Lee, who wrote the book If Disney Ran Your Hospital: 9 ½ things you would do different. I was glad to hear him speak. I have been looking for a copy of his book, as I want to read it soon. He is very engaging.
After the kick off speaker we attended our first learning lab. After that the ladies, except for Karen blew off the second learning lab in favor of some shopping. I was supposed to drive, but opted to go to class. What can I say? I am a guy. I’d rather sit in a lecture than shop. Plus I didn’t want to get stuck shopping and miss the Jazz/Lakers game. Jazz lost, but I only caught the last five minutes of the 4th quarter after my lab.
After the women got back from shopping they decided to go to dinner with some other NAHAM attendees. I passed, opting to go to the dinner provided by the conference. I am glad I did. I got to make some more contacts, peruse some booths set up by vendors hoping for our business, and I got to eat the best Texas sheet cake I have ever had. (sorry, Mike). Let me just comment about the food there. Apparently the people in Dallas eat asparagus for breakfast, lunch and dinner. And while I like the stuff, it did get old. But they did feed us very well. Too well.
Since the rest of my party was off playing I decided to venture out on the streets of Dallas again. I walked down to the American Airlines arena, where I sat on the plaza and watched a hockey playoff between the Stars and Sharks on a huge screen with about a dozen people. I left after the second period. Hockey isn’t my bag. I did get approached for handouts from 12 different people in the 1 ½ mile walk. It was actually a bit scary. I got back to the hotel room knowing that I wouldn’t be able to sleep, so I hit the gym for a 5 mile run. It was great. We were basically at sea level, and I wasn’t even winded after the run. I got to bed about 1:00AM local time, thinking I had stayed up too late. I was wrong.
Monday morning I found Karen at breakfast and she informed me that the rest of the ladies had gone out carousing and didn’t get to bed until 3:30. I don’t know what happened, but I do know that security had made an appearance in their room. They all missed the keynote speaker for the day, which was too bad for them, as it was very informative and fun. I am pretty sure they all missed the first learning lab of the day too. When I finally saw them they didn’t look too good.
One thing I did notice at the conference was that as a man in the access field, I am badly outnumbered. I estimate that the ratio of women to men at the conference was 30:1.
Monday night they bussed us over to Eddie Deen’s Ranch for a western themed party. I was expecting to be taken to a ranch. It was a warehouse-type building just across the freeway. But we did have a great time. There was a live band who coached us through various country dances, and played every clichéd country song you could think of. They even played some Charley Daniels (if Kate had been there she would have known every word). They had a real Texas longhorn bull there, and I got to ride it. They also had a calf-roping simulator where you sit on a metal bull and rope a metal calf as it shoots out from underneath you. I was proud to be the first and one of the few people who successfully roped the calf (another competition I won with Donna). And of course they had armadillo racing. Never heard of that before, but it’s pretty cool. I also got my butt sketched as a mother’s day present for Kate (see below). I stood in line for over an hour only to be informed that I was the first guy to have my butt sketched that night. Hmmm.
It was a good trip and I am grateful that I was able to go. But I am glad to be back home.
