A Thanksgiving Message from the CCMH CEO

If any of you have spent any time on Facebook in November, I'm sure you have many of your friends posting about what they are thankful for this month. While there are many things in my life that I am thankful for, I thought I'd spend a moment today letting you know what I'm thankful for at CCMH.

At our Chamber mixer last Thursday, we highlighted the new providers who have joined CCMH in the past two years. There are 20 of them! These doctors, physician assistants, and certified registered nurse anesthetists have helped to improve the services we provide to our community as well as bring some new services. Each of these providers has benefited our community by bringing their expertise and experience, and I would love to brag about them to you. Ask me sometime!

I'm also thankful that construction on our new Long Term Care facility has begun—finally. This facility will be a model for elder care in the state and region, and we are very excited about it. The site includes easy access to nearby Lasting Legacy Park and Highway 59, as well as shopping and restaurants. But most importantly, it will be better for our residents. The new center features 152 private rooms as well as double occupancy suites for couples, rooms have separate bathrooms and wheelchair accessible showers, secure memory care unit for residents with an outdoor courtyard and so much more—you can see more details at ccmh.net/LTC. The construction will take about 18 months, and we expect to move residents into the new facility in late 2014.

And last, but certainly not least, I'm so grateful for the amazing generosity of this community, and our little community within CCMH. Our employees are some of the most generous people I've ever had the pleasure to work with. When employees are in crisis, we have a staff-driven program dubbed the GIVE Grant to help them. One of the ways staff can contribute is by paying to wear jeans on Fridays—something that generates at least $1,000 a month for this program. Then I learned about Gemma Monthey's brothers, who live in the area affected by super typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda that roared through the Philippines in early November – they are thankfully alive, but have lost everything. Many of you may have read about Gemma and her family in the Sunday Gillette News Record. What struck me the most was that how quickly our employees, like nurses Sylwia Dial and Sarah Buxcel, sprang into action to help out their colleague. This is not the first time I've seen our employees step up to help others who need a hand. I'm honored to work beside such an outstanding group of people every day.

Today I personally thank the employees at CCMH for your dedication and continued commitment to outstanding patient and resident care. I appreciate you for the time and energy you invest every day. I wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving.

Andy