Sandra Day O’Connor passed away on December 1, 2023. Her historic role as the first female U.S. Supreme Court Justice, serving from 1981 to 2006, left a lasting impact on the legal landscape in our country. At her memorial service, her son Jay shared a quote from a letter his mother had written to her children in 1987 not intended to be opened until the end of her life, “Our purpose in life is to help others along the way.”
Justice O’Connor’s quote has had a significant impact on me, and I have been contemplating it, sharing it with others, and doing my best to put it into action daily. It extends the Golden Rule meaningfully and artfully describes the essence of compassion – combining empathy with action to help those around us. Its application is clear in our personal and professional lives, and I want to focus here on the latter.
I’ve considered Justice O’Connor’s quote and how beautifully it intersects with HCTec’s purpose. Our reason for existence at HCTec is “to improve the health of the communities our clients serve by optimizing and making their IT functions better.” Our higher calling is all about helping others, in our case health systems and other healthcare providers, and via our broad services portfolio, to increase the benefits they receive from the significant investments they have made in their IT functions. This investment is made to further their missions (for not-for-profit healthcare providers at least) and comes in the form of people and technology, EHR, and beyond. Benefits are shown through improved patient experience and outcomes, enhanced provider experience and effectiveness, reduced costs, increased insights, and enhanced staffing and resourcing of their IT functions.
I’ve also thought about Justice O’Connor’s quote in the context of our daily work at HCTec. Teamwork is a skill that is consciously practiced in our company and viewed as a primary competitive differentiator. Teamwork is about collaboration and cooperation between team members in pursuit of a common goal, and at its core, is simply focused on helping others. The relationship between Justice O’Connor’s quote and teamwork is crystal clear.
In essence, Sandra Day O’Connor’s quote, whether applied to our personal lives or an IT services firm focused on healthcare providers, underscores the profound alignment of purpose. It becomes a rallying cry for compassion and service to others, innovation, partnerships, and a shared commitment to the meaningful purpose of advancing healthcare and health outcomes.