Direct Line with Steve Edwards for 5/24/2019

Brad Erwin joins CoxHealth Board of Directors

I appreciate the board’s unanimous vote to appoint Brad Erwin as the newest member of the CoxHealth Board of Directors. Brad is president and principal architect of Paragon Architecture and has been part of the Springfield community since 2003. His involvement at CoxHealth began through our Young Professionals Council, which he has served on since its inception in 2015.

IT leadership changes

One of our most urgent priorities is to rapidly advance and continuously improve our organization. We are heavily dependent on IT to run our organization. With this reliance, we find both opportunities and challenges. These changes in IT leadership are designed to support our future growth and improvement strategies. Cheryl Hertel, who has served as vice president and executive director of Si3, our partnership with Cerner, will advance to the role of vice president and CoxHealth Chief Information Officer effective July 1. Cheryl will replace Bruce Robison who will be retiring in September after 46 years of service to CoxHealth, most recently as CIO. In addition, Dr. Louis Krenn, who has served as Chief Medical Information Officer for the past 10 years, will transition to a new role, medical director of ambulatory clinical practice efficiency. We will recruit to fill the open CMIO position.

Change in leadership at Citizens Memorial Hospital

Congratulations to Don Babb who yesterday announced his plans to retire as the CEO of Citizens Memorial Hospital at the end of this year. He has had an amazing career, changing healthcare and dramatically impacting the economic development of the broader Bolivar area. In addition, congratulations to Gary Fulbright who I am confident will carry forward the tradition of changing healthcare in the region! We have a great relationship with Gary, and look forward to opportunities to work together in the future.

CoxHealth reaches one-year mark as special ops training facility

CoxHealth has completed its first year as one of only six hospital systems in the country to serve as a Special Operations Medical Training Center providing clinical training to Special Operations Combat Medics (SOCMs). Military personnel in the program attend a 25-day clinical rotation at CoxHealth in several clinical areas. Physicians, nurses and other staff serve as preceptors. SOCMs at CoxHealth receive additional paramedic training and students returning from CoxHealth have high passing rates on the National Registry Paramedic test. Classes have grown from seven students initially to 16 students in the next class.

24/7 Urgent Care continues to exceed expectations

The 24-hour CoxHealth urgent care in the Turner Center is averaging 40 patients in the overnight period. We are currently looking to recruit on overnight physician to assist the overnight midlevel provider due to the volume that we are seeing overnight.

Employee survey captures staff feedback

Our annual ‘We Want to Know’ employee survey is underway at CoxHealth. After just three days, our participation rate is 48% with over two weeks to go. Last year we exceeded 90% participation. We see these high rates as confidence in our ability to be responsive to employees, and they compel us to make a difference to continually improve CoxHealth as a best place to work.

Voice of the employee

We asked employees what the employee survey has meant to them. Here are a few of their comments:

• “I have seen some amazing changes. Suggestions are merely made and in days to weeks, a new process saving time and money has been enacted.”

• “Instead of managers telling us what we need to do, we are now sharing with them what we think we need to do.”

• “We are asked: ‘How can I best help you to have everything you need to do your job? What are the problems we are facing and what can we do about them?’”

Kids Health and Safety Fair set for June 1

CoxHealth’s annual Kids Health and Safety Fair is a free event that offers a one-stop opportunity to learn about important safety topics in ways that can be fun and educational.

I hope everyone has a safe and restful holiday weekend,

Steve