| Management
team receives national award
Leaders who share dual responsibilities at St. Mary's Hospital, Cottonwood, and Clearwater Valley Hospital, Orofino, were named as the 2005 HealthLeaders Top Leadership Team in Healthcare for Small Hospitals. 
The 28-bed SMHC and 23-bed CVHC, along with their seven satellite medical clinics, serve three counties roughly the size of Maryland and Delaware. Competing against themselves and larger urban hospitals in 1998, the two facilities formed an equal partnership to secure their patient base, cut administrative overhead and upgrade their services to continue providing quality healthcare locally. "The senior leadership team at St. Mary's/Clearwater Valley epitomizes what can be done when leaders work together as a team to make healthcare better for the communities they serve," said Scott McQuigg, president and publisher of HealthLeaders, an award-winning monthly magazine for senior-level healthcare executives. "Facing distance and different organizational cultures as barriers, this leadership team-through a unified team approach-has developed an operational model that will surely be an example for other rural hospitals." The senior leadership team at St. Mary's/Clearwater Valley includes Casey Meza, CEO; Larry Kidd, chief financial officer; Larry Barker, chief operating officer; Iris Hawley, executive director of nursing services; Sue Higgins, Clearwater Valley director of nursing services; Barbara Jean Glodowski, director of mission service/pastoral care; Debbie Schumacher, director of human resources; Theresa Uptmor, director of clinic operations, and Shawn Severson, director of home health care. Also included on the St. Mary's/Clearwater Valley senior leadership team are Patsy Bright, director of health information management systems; Jeanette Gorman, community relations coordinator; Pat Watkins, facilities manager; Jim May, director of development; Bryan Skinner, information systems director; Pam McBride, grants coordinator; Kathryn Allen, medical staff services manager, and Gary McEwen, physical therapy manager. "Receiving national recognition for the work we are doing in our Idaho region reinforces the positive outcomes of collaboration," Meza said. "Having our hospitals work together to face today's healthcare challenges has not always been easy, but our patients have the confidence that both facilities and all our clinics have a secure, stable future." "Although this award specifically honors the 17 joint managers that have driven back and forth between our facilities, it is really also a grand tribute to all our managers, our board of directors, our medical staff, every single employee and especially to our patients and the communities we serve on the Camas Prairie and along the Clearwater River." The honor was based on the outstanding teamwork exhibited by St. Mary's/Clearwater Valley senior leaders that led to them achieving their stated operational goals and objectives, McQuigg said. A panel of judges considered how the senior leadership team worked together to overcome challenges and barriers to meet its goals and objectives. “Note that the halfway, neutral location for the awards ceremony epitomizes the cooperative and collaborative philosophies of not only the leadership of the institutions, but the communities as a whole,” said Steve Millard, President, Idaho Hospital Association, during the award ceremony at Kamiah City Park on Thursday, May 26. “An Idaho native and having been in this business for nearly 33 years, 29 of which have been with the Idaho Hospital Association, I’ve traveled all parts of this state on hospital business and I must say that this is one of the most prestigious awards I have seen any Idaho hospital receive in all those years.” The judges selected St. Mary's/Clearwater Valley from among three Small Hospital category finalists in HealthLeaders' search for the 2005 Top Leadership Teams in Healthcare. The other finalists in the category for hospitals with less than 170 beds were the leaders at Cary Medical Center, Caribou, Maine, and Shoshone Medical Center, Kellogg, Idaho. "Choosing the Top Leadership Team from among the three Small Hospital finalists was a difficult task for the judges because each of the leadership groups is well deserving of this honor," McQuigg said. "The model the St. Mary's/Clearwater Valley leadership team has developed and executed makes them worthy of this recognition." HealthLeaders will feature the nation's top healthcare leadership teams in a future issue and on www.HealthLeaders.com. HealthLeaders magazine, (www.healthleaders.com) published monthly for more than 40,000 healthcare decision makers, is part of HealthLeaders-InterStudy, a newly formed company of Decision Resources Inc. HealthLeaders-InterStudy is the authoritative source for managed care and health care market data, analysis, and news. |
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