By |
 Gem #15
by Hal Ornstein DPM, FACFAS and Lynn Homisak, PRT Life oftentimes deals us an interesting hand of
cards to play. It is “our hand”
to play, with control over the decisions and consequences.
Wake up and see rain, will it be cloudy
or sunny? Below is a message sent to friends
about a recent fire, something that we never believe will happen in
our offices. The point of sharing this is to put our days into
perspective.
Our wish is for the New Year to bring you and
your family all the happiness, success
and joy there is.
******************
Happy Holidays,
Last night around 7:00 pm I had a structural
fire in my office. Thank G-d there was no one in the office and the
surrounding medical offices were not damaged. The smoke alarm went
off and the chiropractor a few offices down called 911. They believe
it started from my sign on the front of my office. The area
above the ceiling and roof was badly damaged. The inside of the
office, windows and equipment appear fine. No water was used, they
put it out with foam (or possibly Biofreeze).
Even though there is little damage inside the
office, the adjuster I hired right away estimates at least three
months before I'm back in the office because
the entire roof and ceiling structure must be removed and
rebuilt. I have very good
insurance that will cover lost income, damage, etc. I will continue
to pay my full-time staff as though we were open as normal. I have
an office about 20 minutes from my Howell office and will try to get
patients to go there. Since the four of us who see patients in this
office will now have free time, we will visit the homes of our
Medicare patients who typically come to the office to debride their
nails.
I have wanted to move to a larger office for a
while and this may be my opportunity or I may move to a temporary
location. The adjuster will work at light speed with the insurance
company to get us seeing patients in Howell ASAP because that's less
the insurance company must give us in lost income. I will notify
referring physicians of the situation and put an announcement in the
local paper.
I know we will fully recover from this but the
frustration is in slowing my typical crazy pace, and also that our
office is kicking butt with DME, in-office dispensing, etc., and
finally adapting to our new computer system. I am so impressed with
the concern, passion and unity of my staff
and the doctors in our group that I experienced
late last night and today. Life lessons learned!
The good news....EVERYONE IS SAFE, LIFE IS
GOOD, I AM BLESSED IN MANY WAYS AND I HAVE SO MUCH SUPPORT FROM MANY
AWESOME PEOPLE (including myself).
It's going to be a great new year...Hal
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