Content area
At the end of the engagement the hospital's CEO threw a going away party for [Shaya Romey] in the organization's opulent Board Room. The CEO proclaimed that Shaya's work represented the greatest benefit the organization had ever experienced from a consulting engagement. During the meeting there was a knock on the door. The CEO opened it and to his surprise, the entire staff from CS was standing there in pink scrubs with gifts and going away wishes for Shaya.
Full text
Sounds like the name of a movie about a horse, doesn't it?
Well, it isn't. This story is about one of my life's most remarkable characters - Shaya Romey. I first met Shaya in 1986 when I was speaking at a seminar in Chicago - at least that's what he says. I honestly don't remember, and since it's in the distant past, my memory is pretty accurate about those things.
It doesn't matter because I met him again 11 years later, in 1997.1 had just been hired by a consulting firm and was about to go on my first job. I would be working in Cincinnati with another good friend of mine, Dennis Orthman. From the moment I got there, Orthman began regaling me with tales of this dude named Shaya. He couldn't talk about him without either shaking his head in complete disbelief or laughing out loud.
Soon I met Shaya myself and I understood what made Dennis react the way he did. 1 would describe Shaya as a cross between Grizzly Adams, Indiana Jones, Timothy Leary and George Foreman.
The first day Shaya came on the job in Cincinnati he was wearing a leather zip-up jacket and an Indiana Jones hat. I kept looking for the whip and the little Asian kid with the New York Giants baseball cap. He had a full face beard and sported a pipe. I don't know what he smoked in the pipe, but it smelled so bad that one time after he had stayed at my house for a few days, my boys pulled me aside and made me promise never to let him smoke in our house again.
Whatever it was, he bought it in Cincinnati and had been doing so for years. He was so excited about being there because he wanted me to take him to his smoke shop so he could buy some in person. When we got there, everyone in the store came out to meet him. They had been selling to him for years and had never met him. We left the store with this huge five pound bag of the smelliest stuff you could imagine. I was afraid that we might get pulled over on the way back and be tossed in jail.
But we made it.
Shaya's wife is a teacher; her name is Sam. He has a dog named Shaya and a daughter named Shaya - hence the George Foreman reference. After Muhammad AH dropped the heavyweight champion to human status in Zaire, Africa, Foreman's life took many directions. He became a preacher, a youth director, a television personality, pitchman for a greaseless electric grill and, oh yes, the heavyweight champion again at age 47.
Those tilings aren't what tie him to Shaya, though. As 1 mentioned earlier, Shaya has a dog named Shaya and a daughter named Shaya. George Foreman had six sons - all of whom were named George.
Shaya lives on Whidbey Island in Puget Sound, north of Seattle. In order to get to a consulting job, he would have to drive to a local airport, take a small plane to a place where he could hop on a ferry, go to Seattle and get on a plane. He also has a cabin on the slopes of Mount Rainier. The area around there is strikingly beautiful and wild. The cabin has no conveniences. It does have a fireplace, but that's it. Shaya has been going there for years and likes to get away from the civilized world by running off to this retreat.
And he looks the part - a combination of Grizzly Adams and Indy.
On one occasion we were driving into Cincinnati on a bright autumn day. As we came around the curve on 1-75 that leads into the city, I was struck by the clarity of the day. Everything was so crisp and beautiful. I remarked about it to Shaya and he said, "Yeah, just like when you're on cocaine..."
"What?" I responded. "You've used cocaine?"
"At one time or another, I've tried just about even-thing," he said.
I'm sitting next to Timothy Leary, I thought. Whenever I think of Shaya, I am reminded of the old Philadelphia Eagles head coach, Joe Kuharich, who once, in a fit of creative analogy said that one of his players was "a horse of a different fire department."
He is weird, hard-headed and way different, but Shaya Romey is my friend. One day we drove down from Dallas to Abbott, Texas, to see Willie Nelson's hometown. We stopped at the general store and bought hats with the logo of the Abbott Volunteer Fire Department. We took pictures in front of Carl's Truck Stop, a place where Willie was known to hang out, as well as in front of the road sign that read: ABBOTT POP: 319.
As the years have gone by I have stayed in touch with Shaya. 1 once helped him get a job with another consulting company. For that he bought me the most beautiful silver money clip you could imagine. It was done by an Inuit Indian and it bore the likeness of a raven. I was touched.
A few years ago Shaya had open heart surgery and went into forced retirement. When he left the healthcare field to become a serious clam digger (I kid you not, that's what he does) our industry lost one of the most knowledgeable experts in the field of Central Service and Sterile Processing. It also lost a man with a wonderful heart.
Dennis Orthman has told me several times over the years a story that captures the uniqueness of Shaya. In 1997, when Shaya first came to the consulting firm, he was sent to Pittsburgh to act as the temporary manager of a CS department. He would spend two weeks at a time on site and he lived in an old dorm associated with the organization's nursing school. He worked many tireless hours training the staff and bringing the department into compliance with regulatory standards.
At the end of the engagement the hospital's CEO threw a going away party for Shaya in the organization's opulent Board Room. The CEO proclaimed that Shaya's work represented the greatest benefit the organization had ever experienced from a consulting engagement. During the meeting there was a knock on the door. The CEO opened it and to his surprise, the entire staff from CS was standing there in pink scrubs with gifts and going away wishes for Shaya. It was probably the first time any of them had seen the hallowed walls of the Board Room, and perhaps the first time the CEO had met them.
Over the years I have known many "characters" - people whose personality is so unique that you can never forget them. Shaya Romey is certainly in the forefront.
Fred W. Crans serves as area vice president, north, for ECRI Institute. Crans can be reached via e-mail at [email protected].
Copyright KSR Publishing Apr 2008