Einstein Healthcare CFO: My heart attack made me ‘reevaluate my work-life balance’

A heart attack two years ago gave Gerry Blaney, CFO of Philadelphia-based Einstein Healthcare Network, a dose of perspective on work-life balance.

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“The irony that the CFO of a large healthcare network almost lost his life to a heart attack is not lost on me, and I’m fortunate to be alive today,” Mr. Blaney wrote for The Phildelphia Inquirer. “My heart attack helped put things in perspective, re-evaluate my work-life balance and commitment to healthy eating and exercising regularly.” 

Mr. Blaney has been an employee at Einstein Healthcare for three decades. During budget season in April 2016, he was busy and had temporarily abandoned some of his healthy habits. He wasn’t eating well or exercising consistently, and he often worked overtime. When he started feeling heart attack symptoms at dinner one night with his family, Mr. Blaney drove to the hospital.

After an initial catheterization, bypass surgery and a few weeks of recovery, Mr. Blaney realized he needed to make a stronger commitment to health and work-life balance, he wrote. While this was already a priority for the health system, he made a point to encourage balance among his employees. Mr. Blaney plans to walk in the 2018 Philadelphia Heart Walk on Oct. 27.

Read his full article here.

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