Kingman Regional Medical Center: Path to Success
Hospital Systems
Written by Amanda Gaines   
Thursday, 31 January 2008
Kingman Regional Medical Center: Path to Success - Health Executive - RedCoat Publishing
Brian Turney explains how key investments and strong community relationships have
For medical centers in rural communities, community acceptance is built through word of mouth. For Arizona-based Kingman Regional Medical Center, the key to success is balancing a satisfied community with exceptional clinical care. The litmus test to securing its place amongst other stellar medical centers is that, 30-plus years after its start, KRMC is still improving.

Kingman Regional Medical Center: Path to Success - Health Executive - RedCoat Publishing
Brian Turney, President and CEO
In the late ’90s, shortly after Brian Turney stepped into his new role as president and CEO, KRMC began benchmarking its patient satisfaction scores against those of its national competitors. The below-average results indicated significant opportunities for improvement, and something needed to change. “Our biggest change in focus has been training our mid-level managers,” Turney said, “which is where the rubber meets the road.”

In 2001, KRMC developed Halibut University, a training program modeled after the business practices of Pike’s Place Fish Market in Seattle. Halibut University teaches principles for developing a harmonized work environment while providing mid-level managers the tools to propagate their knowledge. With Kingman Regional Medical Center as a flagship location, a number of satellite clinics, an imaging center, and an outpatient center in another community, consistency is a must.

“We’ve also used principles from Baptist Health System and Studer Group,” Turney said. “We improved our patient satisfaction scores up to the 89th percentile, but we want to receive those scores on a consistent basis by re-emphasizing the basic principles of doing the little extra things that matter to a patient’s perception in how they receive care. Focusing on employee satisfaction and engagement pays dividends.”

Keeping up
Mohave County, home to KRMC, is the fastest growing county in Arizona, which is one of the fastest growing states in the country. For the past 20 years, the community has seen an average growth rate of approximately 5% per year as many retirees from California take the opportunity to live in an area with crossroads to eight major highways and a corner of Grand Canyon National Park.

One of the toughest jobs for Turney is keeping up with that growth. “We’ve added beds and services to meet those needs,” he said. “Often the process begins with the administration and then proceeds to the local planning committee and board comparing the budget to the need. When the project harmonizes economic sense with community need, we move forward.”

In the late ’90s, KRMC opened a 35,000-square-foot wellness and rehabilitation center, which integrated its physical and occupational therapies with state-of-the-art wellness and exercise technology. Around the same time, the organization opened a catheterization laboratory and became one of the first rural centers to perform interventional caths without open-heart surgical back up. “We made back-up arrangements with certain hospitals in Phoenix and Las Vegas and had helicopter transport on standby,” Turney said. “With that relationship, we felt comfortable performing interventional caths, and the results were impressive.”

The program grew at such a rate that, in 2007, KRMC performed more than 2,000 successful procedures, which prompted the opening of its new cardiovascular center in November. The 12,400-square-foot expansion includes two digital cardiac cath rooms with pre- and post-procedure areas and the ability to add a third room.

The organization is in the midst of recruiting an open-heart surgeon to further expand its cardiovascular service line, but as with many across the nation, physician recruitment is not easy. Rapid community growth brings an added challenge in keeping up with demand, but according to Turney, KRMC has a technology ace up its sleeve. In addition to a three Tesla MRI, KRMC has a 64-slice CT, PET CT, digital mammography, medication management through bar coding, and is four years into a seven-year EMR implementation.

“Physicians are often attracted to Kingman because of the weather, but once they get here, they are surprised and delighted at the IT investments we’ve made,” he said. “They know it will enhance their ability to diagnose and treat patients.” As a result of these types of investments, KRMC has been recognized as one of the nation’s top 100 hospitals in community value three out of the past four years.


Balancing community need
Not all decisions, however, are based on a marriage of economics and need. In late 2007, the organization unveiled a sign for the future Joan and Diana Hospice Home. “The hospice home is a good example of a project that won’t make money but is a community need,” Turney said. “First came the need, and then came the capital.”

The board recognized the need, as well as the financial challenge. A combination of the hospital’s willingness to provide a service that would operate at a loss operationally and philanthropic donations led to a $2 million fund capable of building the facility and supporting its operations. “If we were a different kind of organization, this probably wouldn’t have happened,” Turney continued. “And if we had a different kind of board, it would have been a major struggle.”

In addition to having a community board, KRMC’s management takes part in community service clubs and uses focus groups and surveys to ensure it’s staying on par with what the community expects. On a larger scale, in 2007 Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano recognized KRMC with the Arizona Innovation award, making it the first hospital in the state to receive such an honor. The organization has also been named business of the year by the area chamber of commerce twice.

But despite these accolades and the strides KRMC has taken to further develop its service lines, Turney is not ready to rest on his laurels. “We have the technology, but we also have to provide exceptional customer service consistently. We’re not finished with our journey to greatness, but we’ve done well.”

 
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