We’ve all experienced the uneasy feeling of leaving something familiar and beginning something entirely new. Whether you’re meeting your significant other’s family, moving into your college dorm or starting a new job, it can be scary.
Soon after my future wife Lisa and I started going out, I had the opportunity to meet her family for the first time. Her mom has five brothers and sisters, and they’re a lively bunch. I can be a bit reserved when I first meet people, so I was a little nervous about meeting them.
But in a relatively short period of time, I was able to connect and find common areas of interest with Lisa’s family, like golfing with Uncle Dave or talking about country living with Aunt Judy. It wasn’t long before this big, scary group of new people became a really important part of my life.
Becoming part of a larger organization professionally can be scary too. After 18 months in Lancaster, one of the most common questions I’m still asked is, Why did Lancaster General Health join Penn Medicine?
There are many times in life when doing things together makes more sense, especially when it presents an opportunity to achieve something greater, together. While LG Health has always delivered a wide range of exceptional health care services, our patients previously had to leave town to receive advanced clinical care. Now, because we are part of Penn Medicine, we can deliver more of that advanced care locally.
For example, we are now able to offer CAR-T, an advanced immunotherapy that cures some blood cancers, and proton therapy, a revolutionary form of radiation therapy that limits harm to our patients. We have recently recruited a nationally renowned infertility physician and an exceptional neuroendovascular surgeon who will enable us to provide more stroke care locally.
Being part of Penn Medicine and our ability to offer advanced medicine services locally set us apart from the other health-care choices in our community. LG Health is the one place patients can get everything they need in a highly coordinated way. That’s why advanced medicine is one of our strategic areas of focus, which we will continue to emphasize in the years ahead, while also ensuring that we have the best access possible to the full continuum of traditional health-care services we have offered for over 129 years.
We will keep bringing a world of possibilities to Lancaster, because Lancaster means the world to us.