There is nothing more important than meeting the needs of our patients and their families. That is the message I delivered to our department managers earlier this week. That is the message I discuss frequently in this column – and one I would like to touch upon briefly again today.

These are challenging times. We are faced with continued changes from the state and federal government. As you know, those changes normally mean doing more with less money.

We have done a good job with the challenge this year. But, now we must raise the bar even further. It is no longer enough to be clinically sound. If we give good clinical care in an environment that is perceived as uncaring than we are not doing all the job.

I have never doubted the clinical abilities of our team. Likewise, I have no doubt that all of us (whether in direct patient care or support) can rise to the task of providing excellent customer service.

A few days ago I saw first hand experience from Admitting, MRI, Lab, Ambulatory, Surgery, & anesthesia that your professional and customer service skills are excellent. I want to say thank you to all of those who took care of me when Dr. Shiels scoped my knee.

It is very simple. The customer, the patient, the family member, the other staff member, the physician – the CUSTOMER’s need must come first. This is a decision each of us has to make on a personal individual basis. You are either on the team, or you are not.

As we head into the holiday season I invite you to rededicate your personal mission to be the employee you can be. Our patients need all of us operating at 100%.

By the way, my thanks to everyone involved in our disaster drill Thursday afternoon.  We need to continue to plan and be ready for those unexpected things that do happen from time to time.  The drill pointed out some areas that we will continue to work on, but I was pleased with the response from staff in all areas of the hospital to take the drill seriously.