Blogs

March 9, 2012 - Doin' Right

Mar 09, 2012 by Marc Strode, CEO
Folks,
A bunch of us had the opportunity last evening to attend the Del Rio Chamber Awards banquet.  This is the event last year where VVRMC received the Inovator's Award, and while there was no encore performance there (we didn't expect to win it again....Chamber likes to spread those acolades out to its members!!) it was a really cool evening.  If you have a chance to read the cover story today in the newspaper regarding Chito, you'll get a good idea about what the evening was about as well as what the Chamber's new Doin' Right campaign is all about.  And speaking of Doin' Right, I'd like to recognize Mary and Gilda and the rest of the surgery team as well as Javier in pharmacy for getting extremely creative in how our table at the event was decorated.  You really had to see it in person!  If you can imagine a table totally decked out in hospital stuff--from chairs covered in our patient gowns to traditional table cloth replaced with surgery table dressing to normal name cards replaced with pill boxes monogrammed with the attendees.  That was cool, and it made a real nice impression.

Lots of Doin' Right happening all over the hospital.  A special thanks to the Plant Ops crew who broke away yesterday to flip burgers for our day time crew.  Very tasty Marco and JC!!!!  And how about Miss Cookie with her latest project to solicit ideas for a kids cart above and beyond just the wagon and the goodies we have now.  Sounds like we are taking this to the next level w/ video gaming and other cool stuff to help kids of all ages get through being in the hospital.  I'm looking forward to seeing that.

We're Doin' Right with a couple of new doctors on campus this week.  Dr. Scott Holland is our newest pediatrician who is going to be here to cover the nursery and the ED 1/2 of the month for the forseeable future until Dr. Andrew Faniku--another pediatrician who will join us later in the year--gets here.  Dr. Jude Espinoza kicked off our weekly cardiology clinic yesterday.  Great job by Michelle Ballard and team for preparing so hard for this day!!!  He had a great day--evaluated 13 patients--and was very complimentary of how well prepared we were and how smoothly the morning went.  This clinic effort is just the tip of the iceberg of what we are working on to come.  We have been working w/ Dr. Espinoza's group to recruit a cardiologist full time to office here in the hospital, service the ED, work in our cath lab and help our medical staff.  We have one lined up, and if the stars align, he might be here before the end of the month.  The focus of the periodic clinic like yesterday is likely to turn to a periferral vascular clinic--which was our original intention when this all started--as soon as mid-April.  Our attempt to boost the serivces offered in this area is ever-changing, and we'll work hard to keep you informed on how all of this is coming off. 

Back to the newspaper, did you see our full-page ad last Sunday?  It is the first in a 12-month series to promote the hospital and use our own patients, their families, our team our doctors and our friends to help tell their own story.  The tag is "THIS IS MY HOSPITAL" and fits the mantra of ownership and accountability.  It will tie into my message to hit your mailbox in April in the quarterly issue of Keeping Well.  "THIS IS MY HOSPITAL" is the creative work of Francine Pina and really came off great.  We will have mailers, radio, billboard (electronic) and newspaper.  Each month we will have a different spokesperson and a new story to tell!  Great stuff!  Definitely Doin' Right!!!

We are through the first two months in regards to our transition with our new ED doctors.  We are still working through many, many moving parts still at play, so I appreciate everyone's patience, especially the ED staff as we continue to work through staffing all of the shifts and stiking the right balance relationship-wise with folks who are expert both in Quality and Service. 

Thanks to everyone for Doin' Right and Keeping the Spirit!

Marc