Thibodaux recognizes employees
CIO Bernie Clement and Thibodaux Regional Medical Center are on a roll, winning a third consecutive Healthcare IT News “Best Hospital IT Departments” award. And while he has earned the right to talk at length about what he has done to secure this noteworthy achievement, he prefers to give credit to his employer and his staff.
“We work at a great hospital – the culture here is second to none,” he says. “I’m not sure I do anything uniquely special. The hospital is 50 percent of the secret sauce and having a great team that is technically sound, passionate, and supportive is the other 50 percent.”
[Slideshow: Best Small Hospital IT Departments, 2014]
Thibodaux is a well-managed organization that focuses on planning and does everything possible to be accountable to that plan, Clement says. Upper management also places a high premium on its employees, he says, “and they go out of their way to show it.”
Department diversity is a huge asset, Clement says, because it forms a unique brand of cohesiveness.
“We have a great mix of young and no-so-young; clinical and technical,” he says. “Everyone feeds off of that diversity and it keeps the not-so-young very open minded. Our young bunch is incredibly mature beyond their years – they don’t go cowboy in an attempt to fix things and they understand the value of customer service.”
Clement says he is fortunate to have a group of 13 people who are passionate about what they do – to the point of sharing “passion stories” at weekly departmental meetings about the high level of service they provide to hospital personnel.
“I believe each employee really wants to do a great job for the hospital – not out of fear, but because of a genuine love for the place,” he says. “They are incredibly hard working and they know if we cause something to fail a patient’s life could be at stake. I look for someone who really wants to work here, is a self-starter, a thinker, and is trustworthy.”
The CIO and the entire organization make a point to acknowledge the IT staff’s hard work every quarter, Clement says. For instance, Thibodaux has a WOW program that issues certificates to employees that they can turn in for gift cards. The hospital also holds regular lunch celebrations with commemorative T-shirts for attendees.
“We also try to enjoy an occasional outing with everyone’s spouses and children to spend some social time together and celebrate the past quarter’s accomplishments,” he says.
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