PAUL FELD
I very much enjoyed the people I worked with...
Careers–Good and Bad Choices
Careers – One Good Choice–Summer 2003
BY PAUL FELD
Since being diagnosed with CF at the age of 20, I really didn’t feel I needed to make significant career decisions at that early age. Although CF was giving me some minor problems, I was engaged to be married and looking forward to life ahead. Between the ages of 20 and 29, I had roughly eight different ‘careers’. I had taken some college programming courses in 1978 and 1979, and mainframe computers were all the rage. The PC and Internet were virtually non-existent, and if you had computer skills at the time, you were pretty much free to call your own shots and ask for an ever-increasing salary from one job to the next. That being said, I took advantage of that opportunity. During those years, if something about my position just didn’t sit right for me, I’d check around town to find something else, and almost always got a 5-15% increase when switching careers.
Soon enough however, reality set in and CF began taking its toll. In my 20s, I was hospitalized at least once a year, and often several times in a year. Because my wife was a ‘stay at home’ mom raising our adopted daughter, insurance claims and good company health benefits became a much higher priority than any salary I could make. So, after having worked at Emerson Electric, McDonnell-Douglas Aircraft, Mallinckrodt Chemical, Sigma-Aldrich Chemical, and Schnucks(St Louis’s largest grocery chain), I decided I needed a career that paid fairly, had excellent health benefits, and a solid future. Interestingly, I found that position almost right in my back yard.
A hospital, located about five miles from where I grew up, and just a mile from where I went to high school, had an open position for a computer programmer who knew how to program on the IBM mainframe. They had decided they were going to replace all their Burroughs’ systems in 1986 with IBM hardware, and needed a few people with IBM background. The commute would be ten minutes one-way, and the I/T department had only ten people in it, so the ability to ‘stand out’ among my peers became a reality. My previous employers mostly had I/T departments with over 50 people. The only downside to this position was to take a pay cut of about 10%. After weighing the possibilities, I decided it was the right thing to do. I started February 3, 1986 at $12.25/hour.
It’s now 17 years later and a lot has happened since. I started working with Christian Health Services. It was basically a two-hospital system based in north St Louis County, and Christian Health Services also managed a few nursing homes and several long-term care facilities. I very much enjoyed the people I worked with, and having pulmonary physicians located in the same building I worked in provided me with very easy access to the healthcare I needed. They understood my disease, but did not have any other adult CF patients besides myself. At the time, almost all CF care in St Louis was provided by St Louis Children’s Hospital.
From 1993 thru 1998, my career and our organization grew by leaps and bounds. Barnes Hospital (St Louis’s largest) was trying to convince our hospital’s president to take over the reins at Barnes. Our president agreed, with the condition our organizations would merge. That was the beginning of BJC HealthCare. Several acquisitions later, and by 1998 our organization has 13 hospitals, and several skilled nursing homes and long-term care facilities. We are now the fourth largest non-profit healthcare organization in the country, and have very close ties to the prestigious Washington University in St Louis, who supplies Barnes-Jewish Hospital with all its physicians and residents. Our I/T department has well over 400 employees, and I have held at least six different positions in my I/T career with BJC HealthCare.
More important, however, is my access to the right set of CF healthcare professionals who are both my friends and peers. Seven years ago I was placed on the Barnes-Jewish transplant list for double-lungs, but because of the care I have received and the way I take care of myself, I have moved from ‘active’ to ‘inactive’ a couple times. I’m ‘active’ again, but never could have gotten this far without the great care provided by my employer, and their willingness to work with me when I am down. The only thing that could pull me away from BJC is CF itself, and my ability to not handle full-time employment. I’m not there yet, and will take this ride as long as it will go.
I would encourage others to find something they enjoy, and if a CF patient, look for an employment opportunity that isn’t a physical challenge. Of course, I encourage all the exercise you can handle and commit to, however, a physical challenging career puts you at greater risk of having to eventually change direction. Good luck on your career journey.
Paul is 46 years old and is a Director of USACFA. His email address is: pfeld@usacfa.org