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Being
Well
(By Michael Alan
Hamlin
February 5, 2001
If the crowds at gyms and upscale
massage salons are any indication, executives of all ages and both
sexes are increasingly serious about their physical condition. For
good reason. With people living longer than ever — and working
longer than ever — making the effort to stay in shape makes
a lot of sense. Indeed, it’s not unusual for executives to
recreate themselves and their careers two or three times over 60-year
or more working lifetimes.
In my case, I’m fortunate to have a swimming pool
right across the street. Most mornings I’m there early, and
swim about a 1,000 meters. That’s not too impressive, I know,
but not bad for someone just shy of 50 (How can I be that old?).
Rather than going to a gym, I invested in a home exercise contraption
that I work out on when it’s too cold to swim. My wife considers
the exercise machine with its pulleys and cables an eyesore —
it sits outside on the lanai — and wants me, however, to get
rid of it and join a gym. Or play golf.
Monette also joins me many mornings for laps in the
pool, and most days goes through a rigorous Callanetics routine
involving a bizarre series of stretches and contortions. So I think
it’s fair to say that we both take staying in shape and staying
healthy a fairly high priority. Especially since I started struggling
to keep cholesterol in check a few years ago. Fortunately, Monette
is in perfect shape.
We recently extended our health program to include
comprehensive executive checkups at St. Luke’s Medical Center.
Now, I’ve been writing about St. Luke’s and its president
and CEO Jose F. G. Ledesma for years. We first met when St. Luke’s
received one of the Asian Management Awards, and I’ve profiled
the hospital in both my books.
Although I’ve praised the hospital, its staff,
and Mr. Ledesma in my reviews, I had never really experienced first-hand
the quality of care and indeed customer service — as well as
the expert medical attention — St. Luke’s has become renown
for until recently. In the first of two recent visits to the hospital,
I intentionally did not warn Mr. Ledesma ahead of time. This involved
a minor, out-patient surgery Monette had to undergo.
First, I did want to validate all the wonderful things
I’ve said about the hospital. Second, knowing how generous
Mr. Ledesma is, I wanted to make sure that we were treated just
like any other patient-client. So I experienced first-hand the hospital’s
administrative procedures as well as the process for paying both
hospital and physician fees (Banks and other service organizations
have a lot to learn from the efficiency with which patient-clients’
payments are processed at St. Luke’s.). My semi-covert investigation,
happily, confirmed my arguments about the hospital.
But, in the interest of full disclosure, I did not
make the executive checkup another such covert mission. So Mr. Ledesma
knew we were arriving, and yes, he was generous — down to sending
to our suite an impressive basket of lovely flowers and fruit. The
service was superb, but from observing the experience of other patient-clients
undergoing checkups, it seemed to me that everyone was enjoying
the same level of concern — including escorts to the various
tests and procedures.
The most striking initial impression of St. Luke’s
is its organization and its cleanliness. For those of you who know
Mr. Ledesma, that won’t come as a surprise, as he is one of
the most organized and impeccably dressed executives I know. For
those of you used to other hospitals, the shimmering tiles, clean
walls, and well-organized workstations throughout the complex will
be a revelation.
We elected to take the Comprehensive B executive checkup,
which involves an overnight stay. Check-in time was around 3:00
pm in the hospital’s Business Center (there’s also a concierge
and valet parking). After being whisked through the formalities
and confirming the various tests we wanted — I added a PSA
test, which is meant to detect prostate cancer, and is a must for
all males my age and above — we were escorted to our suite.
Aside from the hospital beds, the suite was much like
that you’d expect to find in an upscale hotel. It included
a reception area with two couches and a computer with Internet connections
(which I immediately started to play with). Before long a series
of residents and physicians began coming by — our team was
led by internal medicine and cardiology specialist Dr. Nestor L.
Santiago — to begin a series of interviews and explanations
of the tests we were to undergo that evening and the next day.
Those tests included everything from a chest x-ray
to a proctosigmoidoscopy (ouch). Among the procedures are ultrasound
examinations of the liver, kidneys, gallbladder, pancreas, and in
men, the prostate. There’s a special series of tests for women.
The whole series winds up with a breathtaking stress test (which
Monette performed better than me, I’m sorry to say).
What are the other things that stand out? Well, for
me naturally it’s the food. It’s excellent, and includes
a choice of entrées. A uniformed waiter takes your order.
In fact, we enjoyed all the creature comforts of home, resort hotel-class
pampering, and fine food (but no wine, unfortunately). That doesn’t,
of course, mean that we weren’t ready to go home as the tests
concluded. But even that is easy at St. Luke’s. You just opt
for the express checkout.
If you haven’t had a comprehensive executive checkup
recently, or are beginning to wonder about how prepared your body
is to live another 50 years or so or a couple of executive reincarnations,
consider St. Luke’s. You’ll not only get world-class medical
treatment and advice and the pampering, you might — and probably
will — learn a thing or two about managing a world-class organization,
courtesy of Mr. Ledesma.
(Mr. Hamlin is managing director of the consultancy
TeamAsia and the author of two books on Asian economies and managing
in Asia. His latest book is The New Asian Corporation: Managing
for the Future in Post-Crisis Asia. His e-mail address is mahamlin@teamasia.com.ph.)
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