Hospitals seen caught in generational gap
by Joe Carlson
As large groups of people under the age of 18 and over 65 tug at each other from across the U.S.' demographic spectrum, hospitals are bound to be caught in an increasingly uncomfortable middle ground that will demand effective leadership, National Public Radio senior correspondent Juan Williams said.
Williams delivered the Malcolm T. MacEachern Memorial Lecture on Tuesday at the American College of Healthcare Executives' annual meeting in Chicago, sounding off on themes of demographic upheaval and the struggle between young and old for influence in the public sphere.
"You are leaders in a much larger sense. You are leaders in our nation," Williams told the crowd of thousands of hospital executives. "And I know you have a lot of anxiety about what has been happening in Washington. ... What you are feeling is but a small aspect of an anxiety that is being felt across our country today."
Just look at the fractious healthcare reform debate, Williams said. The U.S. Census Bureau says that by 2025, 25% of all Americans will be over the age of 65, while another 25% of all Americans today are 18 or younger. Older Americans were the biggest opponents of President Barack Obama's healthcare reform plans, while young Americans are the president's most ardent supporters, Williams said.
"I think what we've got going here is a generational conflict," he said. "In American life now, we have a tug of war. ... In this environment, things can get explosive. You can get, as we saw in the healthcare reform debate, people yelling expletives at each other."
Williams' address followed the awarding of the 2010 Lifetime Service Award to Earl Dresser, who began his healthcare career in 1948 and moved through leadership positions in hospitals in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin before retiring in 1986 as the longtime president of Methodist Hospital, St. Louis Park, Minn.
Dresser took to the podium less than two hours after Obama signed the landmark healthcare reform bill, and opened his speech with an observation: "For those of you on the front lines, I know you've encountered many challenges. I think you have many more ahead of you," he said.