Blogs

To:                   Val Verde Regional Medical Center Medical Staff

From:               Marc Strode, Chief Executive Officer

Date:               January 6, 2012

Subject:           New Year’s Updates

Greetings to everyone and happy new year.  I hope you had a terrific Christmas and were able to take a little bit of time away from the hospital and office to spend with family and friends.  We have hit the ground running in 2012, and I wanted to take an opportunity to provide you with some updates around campus.

• Let me first digress back to 2011.  It was another remarkable year of progress for VRMC as we saw almost every clinical, operational, financial and patient satisfaction metric move in the right direction.  For those who were unable to attend the very well-attended staff Christmas party, I want to share with you that Dr. Terry Lindsey was once again named by the hospital staff as the Physician of the Year for 2011.  Congratulations to Dr. Lindsey for keeping his streak alive!  Darcy Blair, our very reliable evening house supervisor, was named the Employee of the Year by her peers and was recognized at the party.  I hold high regard for Darcy and was proud that she was selected. 

• Remodeling continues on the 1st floor of our campus.  Many of the rooms on the medical/surgical rooms stand at about 95% complete.  As work turns to the patient rooms that are used on a more routine basis, work will slow as the construction team will work with our clinical leaders to strategically take down a couple of those rooms at a time.  In the end, we will have nearly 50 newly remodeled, newly equipped all-private rooms for our patients.  We will begin shortly expanding the waiting area at radiology as well as reworking the patient registration area off the main lobby.  In the 2nd half of 2012 we will turn our attention to the 2nd floor of the hospital, mainly the Women’s Center, ICU and adjacent surgical/ICU waiting area.

• Later this month we will begin our MRI upgrade.  This has been highly anticipated and will equip the department with the latest technology on par with the larger, urban markets.  It should be complete by early February.  In addition, we have signed an agreement with Methodist in San Antonio for our PACS technology.  While this was the more expensive option for us, we think it was the right thing to do given that so many of our patients move among our facility, Methodist facilities as well as South Texas Radiology Imaging Centers.  All three entities and all of their facilities will soon be linked so that images are immediately available on-line.  Go-live for this project will be July 1. 

• Speaking of Methodist, our Board of Directors intends to renew its management agreement for another two years, effective February 1.  Your leadership team here at the hospital endorses this move, and we will look forward to another two years of support and leaning on their many resources and expertise. 

• The next step in campus development is about to get underway.  We intend to construct a medical office building just south of the emergency room on the land the hospital owns.  Over the next three months, we will be accepting proposals and design presentations from four architectural firms.  I suspect we will put a shovel in the ground this fall.  If we stick to that timeline, I think it will be very realistic to have a building ready for occupancy by late 2013.  As we speak, we are working to make decisions what services might be moved into the MOB.  If you have any interest potentially in leasing space in the new office building, please let me know as soon as you can.  With this significant capital initiative, you are likely to also see a capital fundraising campaign to go along with it.  I have a vision of developing and sustaining a Foundation at VVRMC in hopes that over time we will garner more financial support in the community, particularly with those families who have accumulated substantial wealth and may see the hospital as a philanthropic vehicle.

• Today marks the start of a new era in the emergency room.  Level 5 began this morning at 7 AM as the emergency room provider, and I am working closely with our Regional Medical Director, Dr. Charlie Phillips, to make sure our interests are aligned and that you and your patients’ expectations around quality and service in the ED are met at all times.  We are excited about this move.  Level 5 is a group I have worked with in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, and they also staff several of the emergency rooms at Methodist in San Antonio.  You will see many new faces in the ED, so please be patient as everyone gets on-boarded and figures out everyone’s preferences and styles. 

• One of the biggest projects we will undertake is the conversion of our electronic record system in 2012.  We will be moving in a different direction away from HMS and are negotiating right now with the leading vendor.  You had the opportunity to see all three finalists, and for those of you whom attended and provided feedback we appreciate that.  Of course not everyone was in agreement on who had the superior product, but the one we are talking to right now clearly was the favorite among everyone who filled out an evaluation form.  This will be a painful transition no doubt.  We will keep you closely in the loop once the decision has been made and the Board charges us with moving forward.  I suspect by summer we will be fully enthralled in it, and it will likely take a good year to fully implement.  As Dr. Kenneth Davis articulated during his talk last month to the medical staff on the future of medicine, this isn’t necessarily going to make what you do go faster (unfortunately), but it is necessary and a sign of the times. 

• Our goal in 2012 will be to continue to develop the depth and breadth of the medical staff.  We have nation-wide, active searches in the following specialties:  urology, ENT, orthopedics/spine and general surgery w/ subspecialty expertise.  We anticipate later in the year the arrival of Dr. Charles “Buzz” Rigney, Family Practice to the community as well as at least one more pediatrician soon to be named once the final details are worked out on those arrangements.  There is still the group of interventional cardiologists who intend to set up shop at VVRMC a couple of days a week to provide their services, including stenting, so that these services can be provided locally versus having to drive a couple of hours up the road.  For those of you who have been involved in our recruitment efforts, I appreciate your time.  Your opinion is important as we build the future of our physicians for years to come.