Winter 2017 CEO Update

During the holiday season, caring for the ones we love is on our minds and close to our hearts. At Campbell County Health, we show our employees we care through our retention and training programs, and we show the community we care through our wellness program. In both cases, we empower individuals to better themselves, and to be well.

We know that employees who feel valued mean better care for our patients and a more productive workplace, so we support potential and current employees in advancing their careers through workforce development, including recruitment, retention and training programs.

For many years we have helped sustain Gillette College’s nursing program by supporting nursing instructor positions and providing dollars to expand class offerings and training equipment, such as the new health simulation lab. This means nursing students get a quality education and an effective preceptorship with our experienced nurses. Hopefully, they decide to join us.

We also support new registered nurses who come to us fresh out of college in our popular RN residency program. They have the clinical knowledge, they simply need support from seasoned nurses to help them apply their skills in the real world.

For our staff who wish to return to school for advance degrees, we provide $100,000 annually, beyond the approximately $400,000 we spend on continuing education yearly, helping CNAs gain their RN or technician degrees, RNs gain their master’s in nursing, and management folks gain their MBAs or another advanced degree.

Finally, we are developing an innovative succession plan for our management staff that identifies new leaders, provides training, and assigns a mentor to help them advance their career. We aim to develop at least half of our leaders internally. The hope is that these upfront investments will pay off in the end to better us as an organization, and to better our individual employees.

This proactive thinking continues in our wellness program, where we help better the health of thousands of business and industry participants each year. Our wellness program is well known in the state and region. We partner with many companies to promote health and wellness by supporting their employees with a wellness coach, nurse, or nutritionist to help meet health goals. Goals include losing weight, changing dietary habits, starting an exercise program, or getting a chronic illness in check. With someone at your side, you tend to do better.

Our goal is to change the model of care from focusing on providing sick care to providing well care. We want to help you stay well and out of the hospital, and we are here to help you achieve that—and to provide the best care possible when you need us.

Well wishes!

Andy Fitzgerald, CEO