Box Butte General Hospital Strategic Plan focuses on personnel, patient satisfaction

As most people know, Box Butte General Hospital has been in the midst of a three year construction and renovation project to provide the latest in comfort, technology and efficiencies to area residents in need of health care. The $40-million project, which included a new addition; new Michael F. Essay Sr. Specialty Clinic; and 14,000 sq. ft. expansion of the Rehab & Wellness Center, was completed in February of 2017.

What many don’t know is that one year ago the hospital started developing a new strategic plan, one that was adopted at the January, 2017 Board of Trustees meeting after months of outreach to community stakeholders, staff and residents. The  2017 Strategic Plan was compiled by Quorum Health Resources.

BBGH CEO Lori Mazanec said, “We identified five strategic priorities for us to address in the coming years. Those include: 1) Identify partnership opportunities to support physician/provider recruitment and retention; 2) Strengthen quality and service excellence to enhance patient experience; 3) Develop plans to gain market share and reduce outmigration through mutually beneficial collaboration with other healthcare organizations (e.g. local facilities and providers); 4) Work with staff to improve physician engagement; and 5) Develop strategies to improve employee morale and redefine perceptions regarding employee turnover.”

She said hospital staff is in the process to have plans addressing each of those priorities in place by May of this year. “We are putting together teams from our staff for each of those priorities to brainstorm on how best to approach those priorities in a way that provides sustainability and positive results,” Ms. Mazanec said. “We want to continually assess collaboration opportunities with other providers to reduce outmigration and expand services locally. We had a good start with our strong relationship with Rural Partners in Medicine and want to build on that.” Rural Partners in Medicine made it possible for Greater Nebraska Medical & Surgical Services to provide orthopedic, orthopedic spine, orthopedic foot/ankle and urology services (including operating procedures) at BBGH. “We’re also going to focus on pursuing patient satisfaction initiatives to improve preference, reduce outmigration and improve utilization of services,” she said. “Another area we want to address is to further develop a physician recruitment and retention program to meet our short-term and long-term needs.”

It is a given that rural communities have a harder time recruiting and retaining physicians and mid-level practitioners due to a number of factors, ranging from work load to lifestyle issues. “One area we are very much involved in is ‘growing our own,’ ” Ms. Mazanec said. “Whenever you find someone who has roots to the community, the better the chance they will decide to come back and spend most of their medical career here. We’ve already seen that in two of our most recent mid-level practitioners joining GNMSS Family Medicine: Abby Vogel, APRN-BC, and Kristin Ferguson, APRN-BC. We also see that in Brittney Bauer, PA-C, whose family is nearby, as well as Jessica Ott, whose family and in-laws live to the north and south of Alliance, making our area a great mid-point for her and her husband as far as travel distance. We have also experienced great success in our shadowing, Health Professions Club, scholarship programs and other outreach efforts to local youth and residents, with numerous medical care positions filled by those efforts, from physical therapy to nursing positions. So we know that is one area we really want to continue to develop.”

Staff will also develop plans to reduce employee turnover and improve employee morale; engage physicians and employees to drive customer experience and clinical excellence; and continue to develop physician leadership and physician engagement opportunities.

Box Butte General Hospital’s service area has a population of over 78,000 people in both its primary and secondary service areas. “We have a great opportunity to continue to be a leader and innovator in healthcare delivery and community wellness,” Ms. Mazanec concluded. “Our commitment to that mission has been especially evident these past three years of construction, and will continue to be evident in the future by focusing on the priorities we’ve identified in our 2017 Strategic Plan.”

Box Butte General Hospital is an equal opportunity provider and employer.