04/10/09
Top Ten Healing Hospitals & CEO of the Year Announced -
By ERIE CHAPMAN
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Nashville: The Baptist Healing Trust, through its subsidiary, Healing Trust Services, is pleased to announce its 4th annual list of Top Ten Healing Hospitals™ for 2008.
Topping this year’s list is Mercy Gilbert Hospital, Gilbert, Arizona (CHW) Mercy’s CEO, Laurie Eberst was also named Healing Hospital™ CEO of the Year by the six-member national selection panel. (*see related article)

The panel also singled out the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, for its exceptional ability to consistently deliver perhaps the finest overall medical care of any organization in the country. This year, the Baptist Healing Trust offers special acknowledgment to the Mayo Clinic (Rochester) for the first “In a Class By Itself” recognition. Others considered for this recognition are listed below.
We also note three general hospitals that have embarked on the journey toward establishing Healing Hospital™ environments. They are each rising stars.
“Healing Hospital™ recognition was created to honor hospitals and leaders that have made a special commitment to creating cultures of Radical Loving Care” according to Erie Chapman, President & CEO of the Trust.
This year’s selection panel reviewed hospitals coast-to-coast before making their decisions. The panel included Dr. George Mikitarian, President & CEO of three-time Healing Hospital™ winner Parrish Medical Center, Titusville, Florida; Jason Barker, President & CEO, St. Mary’s Hospital, Victorville, California; Dennis Vonderfecht, President & CEO, Mountain States Health System, Johnson City, Tennessee; Roy Elam, M.D., Vanderbilt University Medical Center; Erie Chapman, J.D., President & CEO of the Baptist Healing Trust; and Catherine Self, Sr. Vice President of the Trust. (*Special thanks to our panel members who, by participating, needed to disqualify their hospitals from consideration for recognition.)
[*for more go to: www.journalofsacredwork.typepad.com ]


TOP TEN HEALING HOSPITALS 2008

THE FIRST FIVE

1. Mercy Gilbert Hospital, Gilbert AZ. Member Catholic Healthcare West. Laurie Eberst, CEO http://www.mercygilbert.org This gorgeously conceived, built and operated hospital, located in a Phoenix suburb, is the epitome of the Healing Hospital™. Led by the 2008 CEO of the year, Laurie Eberst, Mercy Gilbert has established an extraordinary reputation for Radical Loving Care. It began when Eberst decided to do a brilliant and uncommon thing. As the hospital was being built, she began hiring staff that, in addition to their regular credentials, possessed A Servant’s Heart. She understood that it wasn’t the building that would make a great hospital; it was the way the hospital was staffed and run.
Using her own leadership initiative as well as learning from her colleagues, like Dr. Mikitarian, at Parrish Medical Center, a previous Healing Hospital CEO of the Year, and others, Eberst assembled a top notch team and built an admirable culture of loving care.
The hospital was so successful that an addition was planned and built that doubled the size of the hospital in just one year. In addition, we recognized Mercy Gilbert for:
Actively creating a healing physical environment, integration of work design and technology, with a culture of Radical Loving Care
No One Dies Alone program – volunteers trained to be loving companion in absence of family/friends
Reflection touch cards at each door
Sacred work pins for all employees
Implementation of the Healing Code Blue experience in which the code team lingers with a patient who has passed away to honor the life of that patient.
High employee and patient morale throughout the organization.
Solid financial performance.
Arizona Business Magazine (#1 Small Size Acute Care Hospital);
Previous Top Ten Healing Hospital (Ranked #2);
Phoenix Business Journal (Best Places to Work in the Valley)
HCAHPS Score above 80%.
The Baptist Healing Trust, along with the Blue Ribbon panel, extends its congratulations to Mercy Gilbert Medical Center for achieving highest recognition as a Healing Hospital™

The other top ten Healing Hospitals™ recognized by the Trust and the panel are listed below. Each will receive a certificate along with permission to represent their organization as an officially recognized Healing Hospital™ for their performance during 2008. Each has demonstrated an extraordinary commitment to patient and employee-centered care that has won them the recognition they deserve.

2. St. Joseph of Orange Hospital, Orange CA. Member of St. Joseph Health System. Larry Ainsworth, President http://www.sjo.org
525 bed/3800 employees
Healthcare for the whole person – body, mind, and spirit
Magnet designation for nursing;
U.S. News & World Report (America’s Best Hospital for Orthopedic Care, 2007, 2008);
Leapfrog Group (Top Hospitals, 2006);
Gallup (Great Workplace Award, 2007, 2008)
Achieved “Superior” rating in overall patient experience again in 2008 by CalHospitalCompare.org
HCAHPS Score: above 80 %


3. Griffin Hospital. Derby, CT. Patrick Charmel, President and CEO http://www.griffinhealth.org
160 bed/1200 employees
Committed to personalized, humanistic, consumer-driven health care in a healing environment;
Planetree Affiliate – home hospital
The Numerous Awards won by Griffin include:
2008 Top Leadership Team in Healthcare (Health Leaders Magazine)
Distinguished Hospital for Clinical Excellence” – 2008 and 2006 (top 5% of hospitals nationally) – Patients receiving care at a hospital rated in the top five percent in the country have, on average, a 27 percent lower chance of mortality and a 14 percent lower risk of complications.
Fortune Magazine (100 Best Companies to Work for in America, 7 straight years);
Training Magazine – top 125
HCAHPS Score: 80% or above.

4. Baylor Medical Center at Dallas, TX. John B. McWhorter, III, President, Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas http://www.bhcs.com
1,000 beds/5225 employees/faith-based
Quality healthcare team makes a difference in real people's lives everyday.
2008 NQF National Quality Healthcare Award;
The Leapfrog Patient-Centered Care award;
U.S. News & World Report designated Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas (Baylor Dallas) top 50 hospitals in five categories in its 2008 "America's Best Hospitals" issue (16 years in a row);
Consumer Choice Award by the National Research Corporation (NRC) for the Dallas region;
Magnet Award for "Excellence in Nursing" from the American Nurses Credentialing Center; The American Hospital Association (AHA palliative care program at Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas a Citation of Honor through the AHA's Circle of Life Awards program.
HCAHPS Score above 80%

5. Kings Daughters Medical Center, Brookhaven, MS. Phillip Grady, President and CEO, http://www.kdmc.org
122 beds/327 employees
Mission: to provide quality health and wellness services in a Christian environment.
HCAHPS Score: nearly 90% - among the highest in the country.


THE SECOND FIVE:

6. Sharp Healthcare, California. A regional, four-hospital health care delivery system based in San Diego, California. Michael W. Murphy, President and Chief Executive Officer, Sharp HealthCare http://www.sharp.com
14,000 employees
Vision: Transform the health care experience for our patients and their families.
Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award;
Gold-level award recipient by the California Council for Excellence (CCE) for the California Awards for Performance Excellence (CAPE) program, the state-level affiliate of the Baldrige Award, in 2006.
Four hospitals in system

7. Highline Medical Center, Burien, Washington. Mark Benedum, CEO http://www.highlinemedicalcenter.org
1500 employees; 200 physicians on medical staff
Awards include: o 2008 Washington State Quality Award (Governor’s Office) o 2008 AHA Silver Performance award o 2008 “5-Star” Rating from Cleverly & Associates (an Ohio-based firm specializing in healthcare financial and operational benchmarking studies and reports)
First Planetree hospital in Washington (healing gardens available to patients and staff)
Mission statement: At Highline Medical Center, we are working together to promote excellence as we provide safe, compassionate and accessible healthcare. We will provide safe, high-quality care in a healing environment. We embrace the Planetree philosophy and utilize the Baldrige National Quality Award criteria to achieve excellence.

8. Skagit Valley Hospital, Mount Vernon, WA. Gregg A. Davidson, CEO. (360)424-4111. http://www.skagitvalleyhospital.org
150 beds/1000 employees
To serve our communities with compassion and dignity, one patient at a time; recent expansion incorporating many healing hospital design principles.
High patient, employee and physician satisfaction.

9. Redwood Memorial, Fortuna, CA (St. Joseph of Orange).Vice President Bob Branigan 707-725-3361 http://www.redwoodmemorial.org
25 Bed/ 1200….critical access hospital
Values: Dignity, service, excellence justice
HCAHPS Score: n/a
cornerstones program focusing orientation/on-boarding on holistic perspective, journey,
healing gardens, labyrinth

10. Mercy Health System, Janesville, WI. Javon R. Bea President and CEO http://www.mercyhealthsystem.org
This Three-hospital system totals 364 beds and 3,856 partners, 285 of whom are employed physicians; 65 facilities serving 24 communities throughout southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois
In the opinion of the panel, MHS hospitals provide exceptional health care services resulting in healing in the broadest sense….promoting physical, emotional and spiritual healing. Encouraging greater family unity. Helping patients and loved ones gain acceptance of a medical condition. Providing compassionate support.
Number 11 in Top 100 Integrated Healthcare Networks (Verispan) and Modern Healthcare Magazine;
2007 Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award;
Ranked number two in the nation on AARP’s Best Employers for Workers Over 50 list;
Working Mother magazine's 2007 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers

*Other Rising Stars - 1) Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA. 2) Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio. 3) Beth Israel Hospital, Boston, Mass.
General Hospitals & Systems 1) Memorial Hospital, Jasper, Indiana 2) Baptist First, Montgomery, Alabama 3)Hillcrest Baptist Hospital, Waco, Texas


*LAURIE EBERST NAMED HEALING HOSPITAL CEO OF THE YEAR FOR 2008
Arizona Hospital Chief is model of Loving Leadership

Nashville: Laurie Eberst, President and CEO of Mercy Gilbert Hospital, part of the Catholic Health West Health System, has been named Healing Hospital CEO of the Year for 2008 by the Nashville, Tennessee-based Baptist Healing Trust (The Trust.) “The six-member national panel was unanimous in selecting Laurie Eberst,” according to Erie Chapman, President & CEO of the Baptist Healing Trust. “Ms. Eberst is the epitome the kind of leader this award was designed to recognize. She is simultaneously strong-minded and compassionate. Her leadership has enabled the growth of an exception culture of radical loving care at Mercy Gilbert.” Chapman continued.
Ms. Eberst is the second CEO to receive this recognition from the Baptist Healing Trust. George Mikitarian, President and CEO of Parrish Medical Center, Titusville, Florida, was last year’s recipient.
Eberst’s loving leadership is contagious. As Kim Hashim, vice president and chief nursing officer at Mercy Gilbert said in NurseWeek magazine, “We have learned that providing a loving and compassionate environment that is aesthetically pleasing promotes healing.”
This loving contagion spreads to frontline staff as well. “Radical loving care is an outflow of an inner reality of love, compassion, kindness, peace, patience, goodness, self-control, and joy,” says Libby Pierce, RN. “As a pediatric nurse, I look and listen to the whole heart of a person, of a child and their family and I go the extra mile to meet the spoken – and the unspoken – needs.”
Throughout her career, Eberst, originally trained as an R.N., has established a strong reputation as a loving leader who knew how to integrate her nurse training with superb leadership ability. Integrity, compassion, and caring are hallmarks of her leadership style. She stays in close touch with first line staff by rounding regularly, conducting question and answer sessions, and visiting patients.
Eberst was an early advocate of the concepts of Radical Loving Care and Sacred Work advanced by the Trust. Her assistant, Jan Reed, even designed a lapel-pin version of the three-part symbol of Radical Loving Care which is now distributed nationally by the Trust.
The Baptist Healing Trust extends its congratulations to Laurie Eberst for winning recognition as Healing Hospital CEO of the Year for 2008. We believe she will always represent the best in what hospital leadership should be for organizations that care about both mission and overall excellence.