Page 45 of Degrees of Acceptance
From:[email protected]
Short break... Reconvening.
C. H. Prestian
Chief Executive Officer, Owner
Prestian Corporation
***
The next two hours fly by preparing for the user group meetings and developing the presentation for the simulation sessions. Renee peeks in. “Kate, the caterers have arrived. I set them up in the conference room. Is there anything else you need for the meeting? If not, I’m going to take a walk over the lunch hour. It’s such a beautiful day.”
“Go for a walk… we will be fine. I can’t imagine we need anything else,” I say, heading into the bathroom to brush my teeth and reapply lip gloss. I have to admit it's very nice having a bathroom adjacent to the office.
I walk into the conference room and don’t know why I’m so surprised. Chase has arranged this, after all. The conference room table has been removed and replaced with a smaller one, which has been arranged in the center of the room with a tablecloth, napkins, silverware, and glasses. A catered lunch is laid out along one side of the room, and water and fresh lemons are floating in a glass punch dispenser. The silver buffet servers contain salmon with a caramelized glaze, halibut in a creamy dill sauce, seasoned green beans and a cauliflower dish. A small glass bowl displays the reds, oranges and green colors of a mango relish and another holds a salad with a multitude of seasonal garnishes and the dressings are arranged at the end of the table in glass dispensers. I’m not sure if I am ever going to get used to his lifestyle.
“Kate, it feels like ages since I’ve seen you,” Jenny says, announcing her entrance, and as I turn I’m crushed into her arms with a big hug.
“I know, way too long,” I say, laughing at my best friend’s exuberance. “It’s been a crazy week, that’s for certain. Luckily most of the drama has blown over now. Chase still has security pretty tight, but at least we’re able to return to the city. He had Mom flown back to Naples yesterday. Chase had a meeting scheduled until noon, so he’ll be here as soon as he can,” I say.
“Hey, before he gets here—I seriously need some updated makeup and could use some more dress skirts and a pair of new fall boots. Would you like to go shopping?”
“Well, I guess you could absolutely drag me. You know how much I hate shopping!” she says.
I laugh. It’s so good to see her. “One more thing before Chase arrives. He asked me to go back to Aruba with him at the end of the month. We would leave a little early around three in the afternoon on Wednesday and be back the following Tuesday,” I explain.
“Go, Kate, you know you don’t have to ask me,” she says.
“If you’re sure. The Medical Center project is coming along really well. The initial ground soil tests came back good. Terry has plenty of space to work with given the amount of land Chase bought, so there’s no concern about needing to constrain the footprint in that regard. I just finished the load leveling schedule and data for the exam room capacity. I feel confident we won’t have to overbuild. The simulation should demonstrate that clinicians will have three exam rooms available for use when practicing, but that we don’t have to build three per clinician. This should save us a few million dollars alone based on the square footage,” I explain.
“Glad to hear it,” Chase says as he walks across the conference area. He extends his hand to Jenny. “Jenny, happy to see you again, and this time under better circumstances,” he says.
“Good to see you too, Chase. I recall the last time we were together you were quite frantic with worry,” she says. I smile at her graciousness. Grumpy, bossing and overbearing are my recollections of him while I was in the hospital. The poor nurse and doctors.
“Lunch smells great, and I’m hungry. Why don’t we get something to eat and then we can talk,” he says, waving us towards the buffet. “It was catered by Zambia’s. The food is always good, they have a variety of options, and a way of making even the starkest conference room look like an excellent little restaurant,” he says.
“It was sweet of you to invite me, Chase,” Jenny says as we sit with our lunch. “Kate and I haven’t seen each other in longer than normal. I suspect you’re keeping her pretty busy,” she says, then blushes as we both look at her, clearly thinking the same thing.
“Katarina is somewhat of a workaholic, so I’m trying to get her not to work as much, actually,” Chase explains, steering clear of the inference.
“I’ve been telling her to quit working so much for years, Chase. Maybe you’ll have more success,” she says.
“How did this conversation end up being about me? I just like to make sure everything is done, and all the details are in place,” I say, scowling my displeasure before taking another bite of the salmon topped with mango salsa.
“Speaking of the hours Katarina works. That is a perfect segue into why I asked you both to have lunch with me. We’ve had previous discussions about the Chicago Medical Centers and the fact that we’ve purchased land for two buildings. The contract we currently have in place is for the initial bid and subsequent work involving one facility, which means we still need to amend the contract between Prestian and Torzial to include both and the work required to get the projects to design.”
“Chase, you’re paying us for the development of the patient experience and the design as a result of that work. In this particular case it just happens the future state called out the need for two locations and renegotiating the contract never came into my mind, ” she says.
“Well, renegotiating my contract is never far from Chase’s mind,” I blurt.
“Kate, he has a point. Maybe that’s why you’ve needed to put in so many hours,” Jenny says.
“One might think so, but actually, I’ve spent most of my time to this point on the one facility, working through exam room data and simulation. The providers, as in most cases, are worried about how many exam rooms they will have. I’m confident the angst will subside after the presentation and simulation,” I explain.
“Jenny, I didn’t bring up the multiple facilities to make you feel bad about Katarina’s hours, but instead to have a discussion about the future. She is currently putting in long hours, merely working on one design and hasn’t even moved from the primary care practice flows into the other social services, pharmacy or medical assistance services the new center will offer. A lot of that is her drive to do an excellent job and accomplish targets. However, I’d like to have an open dialogue about expanding our scope and business relationship. Typically, I would have worked with you directly, but given the fact I’m in a relationship with the person I want to hire, and you are best friends, I felt it best to include Katarina in the conversation if that is okay with you,” he says.
“Of course it is,” she says, not giving away that she knows how angry I was with Chase the last time he talked to her about my assignments without discussing it with me.
