Blogs

November 1, 2012 -- coming off Halloween sugar high

Nov 01, 2012 by Marc Strode, CEO
Folks,
Hope your Halloween was a good one.  I was really, really impressed with all the costumes yesterday!  That was a whole lot of fun.  I now must go rent and watch w/ my boys Despicable Me after seeing Jed and the 3 blind mice and all the minions (sp!!???).  Thanks to everyone who dressed up and made the day just that much funner.  And for those of you who worked last night and passed on the parties, trick-or-treating, and other festivities we appreciate that, too.  We know the night shift does make some sacrifice on days like this and it's top-of-mind for us.

We did have Star of the Month yesterday, and while I missed it due to conflict with a Board Meeting, I wanted to congratulate Melinda Martinez from the ED for being recognized by her peers as the best of VVRMC for the month!  Way to go Melinda!  We are proud of you!  And very fitting that someone from the ED was recongized given the progress the team there is making around patient satisfaction and wait times.  I also want to recognize another ED all-star, Dr. Teo Sanchez.  He's been our medical director since August and you can just feel his energy and positive vibe in that department.  We are so appreciative of his dedication and effort.  We are working w/ the ED group to build some depth around him as we continue to recruit more ED doctors who share the appetite for service and are excellent clinically.

Just want to provide a few quick updates on some of the things we've been working on.  You know, we are here to lead and help operate the hospital.  That's our primary function, but sometimes there are important competing interests for our time and that certainly has been the case as of late.  Your leadership team has been hard at work figuring out our next move in cardiology.  While we have once again had some transition, there is a lot of interest out there to help VVRMC out, and we will find the best option for us and reload.  One positive step we have taken in the interim is we have cardiologists from San Angelo who as they have before have stepped up again to help us with Echo reads on our patients.  This service, which was quickly put into place w/ the help of Gayla Satterfield operationally and then Gloria and Annette from a credentialing standpoint, has been well received mainly by our hospitalist team who depends on this important diagnostic to help evaluate and treat the patient.  We are considering what immediate, short-term solutions are available to us--with input from the team and our medical staff--so as to bridge the gap temporarily and determine our long-term strategy.  Rest assured there will be a long-term play in cardiac services here at VVRMC!

Dr. Carpio has completed his two-week stay at VVRMC.  He is the urologist we are courting.  His experience was outstanding.  I talked to him on Monday, and after "dating" for 2 weeks, he is still very interested in getting "married".  We will continue our discussions with him and have news for you very soon about next steps.

We continue to work with the providers from the Shannon Clinic.  Those opportunities are still at play, and I suspect the "crystal ball" on this one will become much clearer here in the coming weeks.  Stay tuned.  We have an outstanding devloping clinic of our own, and we would welcome these folks joining our team if indeed all the stars align. 

Keep the Spirit,
Marc