Published: May 29, 2007 04:14 pm            

Lake Cumberland Regional Hospital What to expect in 2007

Somerset — Lake Cumberland Regional Hospital CEO Jeff Seraphine could boast of many high-dollar projects which have either recently been completed or are nearing completion.

The hospital has invested approximately $100 million in equipment, an imaging center, a sleep center, a building expansion, a parking garage, and other new endeavors.

“In the last several years, our hospital has been in a big growth and investment mode. What I tell my new employees is that we’re a big community hospital that, a few years ago, decided to grow up and become a regional hospital,” Seraphine said.

But when asked about his goals for 2007, he would rather talk about something a little less technical.

While there are still many milestones ahead, Seraphine says, this year, LCRH leadership is focusing on getting back to the basics — putting emphasis on the hospital’s mission statement: Leading the way to better health care by treating patients like family.

“Our priorities lie in providing patient satisfaction,” Seraphine explained.

“Our investments in our facility and in equipment have helped move us into a regional role. Now we want to make sure we’re leading the region in what we set about to do in our mission statement.”

This year, Seraphine is making a “commitment to service and recruiting” — two ideas which go hand-in-hand, he says. The arrival of more quality physicians means the hospital will be better able to become a place where patients feel valued.

Rounding out the staff...

LCRH now offers a full-service heart program and a highly-sought-after neurosurgery program. The neurosurgeons at LCRH are the only ones in a 40-county area in southeast Kentucky.

“We are looking at ways to provide those services for more patients than we normally service,” Seraphine explained.

“There is a growing shortage of physicians nationwide. People don’t realize how hard it is to recruit good physicians, and I think we’ve done a good job of recruiting them to our community,” he continued, adding that LCRH spends about $2 million per year attempting to bring physicians to the area.

Faster service...

The hospital’s emergency room — often a target of community complaints — was revamped last year.

“We knew the ER could do better,” Seraphine admits candidly.

“We were facing challenges that face every hospital — shortages, long waits. But when you live in Somerset/Pulaski County, it doesn’t matter what other hospitals are facing. So we’ve focused on that initiative for about the last year-and-a-half.”

Eleven emergency room physicians were removed last February, and a “handful” of physicians committed to “getting people in and out of the ER faster” were brought in, Seraphine said.

Now, Seraphine says, patients’ surveys and physicians’ feedback from the emergency room are improving.

“Since April of 2006, 99 percent of patients have either seen a doctor or had treatment started in less than 30 minutes,” Seraphine bragged.

In fact, LCRH boasts a “30-minute guarantee” for their ER services.

“I’m unaware of anybody else in the state that is advertising that kind of guarantee,” Seraphine said.

Quality from an expert’s perspective...

The hospital is ensuring quality service by employing a first-ever chief medical officer, Dr. Michael Citak.

“Dr. Citak was hired in July of 2006. He is well-respected and is an excellent surgeon. He is now part of our administrative team, providing a physician’s perspective to make sure we provide quality service — to make sure you are getting what you want for your family,” Seraphine said.

“We want to set a standard in this region for quality service,” he continued.

Service with a smile...

An emphasis is being placed on employee satisfaction at LCRH.

“If your staff is not satisfied, you’re patients will never be satisfied,” Seraphine said.

“We want to create a good work environment for our physicians and our team members. We’ve seen team members’ satisfaction surveys move up to above average for our company, and well above the national average, recently.”

LCRH employees have been motivated to improve their patients’ stay with what Seraphine calls “wow moments.”

“This year, we are insisting that our employees spend some money on satisfying our patients, on making our patients feel like they have been treated special,” he said.

Employees are going the extra mile to provide special meals or other acts of kindness for patients who need a lift. “Wow moments” are shared in staff meetings — and Seraphine hopes the staff will find it easier and easier over time to give of themselves to help their patients.

A reputation of perfection...

As Seraphine predicted, with happy staff comes happy patients.

He said the hospital has seen “significant strides” in company rankings in the area of patient satisfaction.

“We were in the bottom third of our company, and we’re now closing in on the top third,” he said.

Seraphine says there’s a difference between a “satisfied” patient and a “very satisfied” patient, and that he doesn’t want to settle for either type.

“The very satisfied patients are the loyal patients. ... We’re seeing a lot of good results, but we’re trying not to rest on that. ... We don’t want to be average. We want to be known for it,” he said.

“We’re still buying equipment and making advancements, making what we have better. We’re still recruiting, and we have excellent services now — we’re just making them better. ... But we want to be known for great service. We can perform surgeries and build buildings, but if we want to be a regional medical center, we’ve got to do things better than we have in the past.”n

        

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