How a Rochester restaurant helped fulfill a patient's final wish

Dr. John Noseworthy concluded his keynote address (full recap of the speech here) in front of the Rochester Area Chamber of Commerce on Thursday night with what he described as a "simple story" that "really does ring that bell about what is unique and special about this community."

It was about a St. Marys patient who was near the end of her life. Her final request: a piece of pumpkin pie.

Nurses went to the hospital cafeteria, only to find it was not available. They then walked across the street to the Canadian Honker, but they did not have any pumpkin pie either.

Then this happened.

The folks at the Canadian Honker said, 'Why are you nurses wanting a piece of pumpkin pie to bring back to the hospital?' And they told the story. And the folks at the Canadian Honker, do you know what they did? They said, 'Well give us a little time and we'll make one.' And of course, they went back into the kitchen and made this pumpkin pie so they could fulfill this patient's wish.

 

It seems like such a little thing, but that wouldn't happen everywhere. And Joe [Powers] didn't know about it. Joe didn't say, 'Make the pie.' But Joe, like all of you, had created that work environment that empowered people to do the right thing.

 

It's not a matter of top-down leadership telling people what to do, but in this community it's: what's the right thing for our customers? What's the right thing for our community? And in this case, what's the right thing for patients?

 

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