QUEEN OF THE CASTLE Lyn Zahnow, RN, CASC, wears the crown well.

Every surgical facility leader should bow down and praise Lyn Zahnow, RN, CASC, for capturing the essence of who you are and what you do.

I am the queen, and this is my castle.

For sheer brevity and brilliance, we love it. You, the queen (or king), reigning supreme over your castle, presiding over all that takes place within the confines of your surgical facility, ruling with an iron fist inside a velvet glove, up early and staying late to do what nobody notices you do until you don't do it. Isn't that how it is at your facility?

You might not hold the title and deed to your hospital or surgical center, but it's your world. Everyone else is just passing through.

I am the queen, and this is my castle.

It's a mindset, an attitude. Ought to be on T-shirts and bumper stickers. Try it out on a rep. Or a doc. Or a surveyor. Or a patient. Think it, don't say it.

Ms. Zahnow's staff at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta Surgery Center at Meridian Mark first referred to her as queen during an accreditation survey a few years back. The surveyor had a question that only she would know. "Has anyone seen the queen?" they asked. It stuck. They even bought her a crown. The title and crown fit her nicely, so Ms. Zahnow, 55, has kept them both around, the title morphing into the queen-castle saying and the crown tucked in a drawer in her office, "just in case," she jokes.

"Administrators have to consider themselves the queens of the castle," says Ms. Zahnow. "You're responsible for understanding all that's happening in the center — clinically, administratively and financially. You have to always be thinking about how to improve your processes, and always have your eyes open to be sure all the rules are being followed."

Ms. Zahnow has taken the queen-castle analogy a step further to include a drawbridge. A good surgical leader, she explains, lets the drawbridge to her castle down so that vendors, consultants and others can provide services. "That is their gateway to the castle," she says. "And then back up it goes."

Back up it goes to keep them out until they're needed again. That's how it is in the insular world of surgery. The queen only grants access to the castle to her loyal subjects: surgeons, staff and patients.

There's one last thing we love about the queen-castle analogy. Like good leaders and rulers, facility managers care deeply about the people they work with and for, and the place they govern.

"I love my job," says Her Majesty Queen Lyn I. "It's a big job, but I love my job."