Greensboro Hospital viewpoint [October, 1988]

              Greensboro Hospital
VTFWPQint
October 1988
Executive
 NOTES	
by Jim Brexler
Executive Vice President
Now that the heat of summer is behind us, we will
depend on the intensity
of our planning efforts for the
Women's & Infants' Hospital to keep
us warm during this fall and winter.
The Program Planning Committee has
come to closure with our consultant
on recommendations for our new
hospital, and several task forces comprised of physicians and hospital staff
from both campuses have been appointed to finalize facility design and
begin work on operational planning
issues. We hope to complete our
facility design work by the end of this
year and be under construction next
spring. However, that effort is only
one part of the major planning efforts
required to make the appropriate
conversions for our campus. In other
words, our work is just beginning!
October 15th we submitted to the
state of North Carolina our Certificate
of Need for the conversion of this
facility. Exciting times are on their
way!
The budget process for our current
operations has been concluded. As a
result of a number of factors, we have
been forced to increase overall
hospital charges by an average of
7.1%. While this is a significantly
higher increase than we have historically had to implement, we can be
proud of the fact that our increase is
less than one-half the increases
sought by most of our neighboring
hospitals. Remember that the higher
our productivity and the more we are
able to produce cost savings, the
more positive impact we can have on
the prices we must charge to our
patients.
In order for us to be successful, we
must continue to look for new and
creative ways to help each other and
our patients. In that regard I want to
personally thank those who have contributed by helping staff those departments with critical staff shortages. I
know this has required cross-training
and adjustment to personal schedules, and it is most appreciated. I also
want to thank those of you who have
contributed with ideas for improving
our hospital, examples of which are
packaged sandwiches in the cafeteria,
better directional signage in Radiology and some exciting new ideas
for volunteers.
Please keep up the good work and
be careful out there "trick 'r' treating!"
Thanks To You..
U Worfc!
l\ DlVJ 1 ri/YIN JXO to all employees
who participated in the 1988 United Way Campaign. We exceeded
our goal of $7,500 by $4,600 for a total pledge of $12,145! To those
who gave so generously — Thank You for making our community
an even better place to live.
Special recognition goes to the following departments who met
their goals:
Anesthesia
Business Office
Communications & DP
Dietary
Executive Offices
Housekeeping
ICCU/CCU
Inservice Education
Laboratory
Materials Management
Medical Records
Nursing Administration
Personnel
Pharmacy
Physical Therapy
Plant Operations
Quality Assurance
Radiology
Respiratory Therapy
Social Services
Surgery
Volunteer Department
Child Care Center
Update* ■	
As part of the effort to find a site for
the proposed child care center, the
entire campus at Moses Cone Hospital is once again being re-evaluated.
While the Tankersley Drive property
seems to be the best site for this project, a series of events has made the
process for obtaining this land very
difficult.
During the negotiation for land, our
ability to obtain the Tankersley Drive
site has hinged on our pledge that no
suitable land exists on the present
MCMH campus for this center. Since
VHA/Wesley Long has appealed our
nursing home Certificate of Need
(CON), the status of the property
designated for the nursing home is
now uncertain. Should the CON be
retracted, this site would once again
be available.
This appeal puts the Hospital in a
difficult position. We simply cannot
wait until the nursing home appeal
has been settled to institute a child
care program. At the same time, until
it is settled, we cannot know whether
the site will be used for a nursing
home or if it will be available for other
purposes.
The Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital is committed to providing child
care for employees. During the next
few weeks, the progress of the VHA/
Wesley Long appeal will be carefully
monitored, and every possible alternative for the timely creation of a
child care center will be explored.