Oct. 22, 2021

Leadership change

This week we announced a change involving two of our amazing leaders: Karen Kramer, who has led our Springfield hospitals and served as incident commander for our pandemic response, will retire in February 2022. I have tremendous respect for Karen and the positive change she has led. In all the years we have worked together, I have noticed that any time something good has happened at CoxHealth, you can usually find Karen working humbly in the background, driving change.

Amanda Hedgpeth will become president of our Springfield hospitals. Amanda is an incredible success story. Over her 16-year career – starting as an intern – she has demonstrated her ability to see the big picture of hospital operations. She has served as director of budget management, assistant vice president and vice president of clinical services. Amanda makes good things happen fast, and I am excited about the future as she steps into her new role.

COVID-19 update

We continue to see an easing of our hospitalized COVID patients, with 44 inpatients as of Friday morning. We do see our symptomatic positivity rates inching up (10.24%), but hospital admissions remain stable. This is likely due to 20% of new infections being in children, who are less likely to require hospitalization. We were able to close our dedicated West Tower COVID ICU yesterday, and are hopeful it can remain closed. But, it will be a resource, if needed, as we plan for the possibility of an increase in cases this fall and winter.

We have seen a dramatic drop in cancer and other preventative screenings across the nation, and I especially worry about undetected cancers. Please consider scheduling your checkups and screenings while we have newfound capacity with lower case counts.

Employee universal vaccination reaches 98.9% compliance

This week was the first full week after our employee universal vaccination deadline and I am grateful to report that 98.9% of our employees are in compliance with the policy. Fewer than 100 full-time employees, plus about 30 PRN staff members, were placed on a 30-day unpaid administrative leave.

It took a lot of sustained hard work from so many of our teams to reach this level of compliance and I am proud of everyone involved for their efforts to keep our patients and community safe.

New online bill pay

We are simplifying billing for our patients with the launch of a new online bill pay system. Patients can view and manage all of their accounts, including current and past balances, in a single location that is mobile-friendly. You can access the service at coxhealthpay.com.

Voice of the Patient
From patient feedback at the Cox South Emergency Department: “The nurses were so nice and seemed genuinely interested in doing anything they could to make me comfortable and feeling better. Fantastic staff!”

Thank you for all you do,

Steve

Direct Line from Steve Edwards: 10/22/21