See Something, Say Something, Do Something

This six word battle cry was coined by Allan Kay. During his career, Kay created many memorable commercials, including one featuring a monk who works miracles with a Xerox copier. Brother Dominic was shown toiling away in the basement of an abbey writing a manuscript by hand. When the father superior asks him for 500 copies, he luckily finds a friend with a Xerox copying machine and gets the job done speedily. “It’s a miracle,” his fellow monks exclaim. However, Kay’s most notable slogan followed the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, Allan Kay created the See Something, Say Something for New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Kay wanted to create something positive in the wake of the tragedy, and the phrase was originally posted on billboards and public transportation. "See Something, Say Something” was then trademarked by the Department of Homeland Security and applied all over the world to report suspicious activity. It became an international campaign that raises public awareness of the indicators of terrorism and terrorism-related crime, as well as the importance of reporting suspicious activity…

In other words, this phase means keep your mouth shut…. In the past, Snitches Get Snitches was the common phrase for not saying anything or to avoid reporting suspicious activity. Snitches Get Stitches meant if people told on you, they would have to face repercussions. It originated from the gang world that you could get hurt or killed by the gang if you say something is wrong. It is a way of saying “let’s not tell anyone about this. We are all friends and friends don’t tell on each other.” Everyone plays a role in keeping our community safe, including our workplace, and applies to healthcare as well, so if you see something, say something. You may save a life when you speak up.

Management by walking around is a commonly used slogan in industry and healthcare to emphasize the importance of interpersonal contact, genuine appreciation, and recognition of employee accomplishments. It also means to wander around to get a good feel for what’s going on. This can lead to faster problem solving, to identifying problems, and to find answers, to what is or what is not working. It's not just about being friendly — it's a way of keeping one's ear to the ground to understand what's really going on with the business. It involves identifying the problem, gathering and analyzing information, generating possible solutions, evaluating those solutions, and implementing the best one. At its core, this skill is all about spotting issues and then working out the smartest ways to sort them out.

At Case Medical, our goal is to solve problems, to identify needs and determine how we can best address them with a product or service. We do this by listening to you, our colleagues, by investigating potential issues, and finding the best solution…be it developing a new product, finding a way to improve an existing one or expand its use, and by educating and advocating for best practices.  Join us next week to learn more about what we can do for you.

Visit us anytime at www.casemed.com to learn more about our products and services. We are here to help. Case Medical is a U.S. EPA SAFER CHOICE Partner of the Year for Manufacturer Formulator and recognized in NJ as Innovative Manufacturer of the Year.

Kindest Regards,

Marcia Frieze and the Case Medical team