Three Named to Studer Group Fire Starter Hall of Fame
Three Named to Studer Group Fire Starter Hall of Fame
Hospital Executives Recognized Nationally for Making a Positive Change in the Healthcare Industry
Gulf Breeze, Fla. (January 4, 2008) – Studer Group, an outcomes-focused healthcare company, announced today that three hospital executives in three different states have been named to the Studer Group Fire Starter Hall of Fame in recognition for their ongoing commitment to clinical, service and operational excellence.
This year's inductees are Roddey Gettys, EVP and COO of Palmetto Health Baptist Easley in Easley, S.C.; Audrey Meyers, president and CEO of The Valley Hospital and Valley Health System in Ridgeland, N.J. and Steve Simonin, CEO of Wright Medical Center in Clarion, Iowa.
Studer Group founder and CEO Quint Studer said of the winners: "For the Hall of Fame we choose people who have led their organizations to excellence over a long period of time. Who are open to sharing their methods with others. Who set examples for others to follow. These people make healthcare better in their own organizations and across the country."
Studer Group will induct these Fire Starters into the Hall of Fame at the annual What's RIGHT in Health Care, one of the largest conferences in the healthcare industry, in Atlanta on June 18. The conference consists of 1,800 hospital leaders like these winners coming together from across the country for peer-to-peer learning and to share tactics that drive improved outcomes such as these Hall of Famers have achieved.
Simonin, for example, has taken a rural, 25-bed hospital in Iowa to the top of some very impressive national statistics – top one percent of patient satisfaction nationally, employee turnover in the single digits and the Top Leadership Team award presented by HealthLeaders magazine, to name just a few.
Simonin believes that caring, compassion, service and quality are a hospital's primary functions. "Quint told me years ago that if we get those, the financials will come. We was absolutely right. This is the flattest farmland in the middle of Iowa. We don't have much going for us, yet we succeed. We're competing now against the big hospitals, not the other small, rural hospitals. I have a relentless sense of urgency to keep making Wright Medical better."
Meyers' hospital is larger, but also award-winning, having earned the Gold Seal of Approval from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare organizations. The second-busiest hospital in the state of New Jersey (based on admissions), Valley Hospital is a fully accredited, 451-bed, acute-care, not-for-profit hospital serving more than 440,000 people in 32 towns in Bergen County, N.J. and adjoining communities.
In 2003 and 2005, Valley was recognized for service excellence under the J.D. Power and Associates Distinguished Hospital ProgramSM. Valley also has received the Magnet Award for nursing excellence from the American Nurses Credentialing Center. The Magnet Award is the nursing profession's highest honor.
Meyers says: "The hospital's mission is to deliver high-quality, cost-efficient healthcare through the efforts of its greatest asset — the more than 800 physicians, 3,000 employees and 3,700 volunteers who constitute The Valley Hospital."
Palmetto Baptist's Gettys leads a 109-bed general acute-care facility in rural South Carolina. "I'm humbled, excited and blessed to work with the great professionals here at my hospital," he said.
Gettys sees one of his roles as being an evangelist for quality healthcare and for using evidence-based outcomes to implement change. He credits Studer Group methodologies for "opening doors I never thought I'd have – the opportunities to influence the things I have."
"All of these leaders are dedicated to being lifelong Fire Starters," said Studer. The Studer Group Fire Starter Hall of Fame is a distinguished honor that Studer Group bestows upon leaders who keep the true essence of the organization alive and flourishing. Fire Starters ignite the flame of service and caring for others that guides and supports the organization and results in measurable, positive clinical, operational and financial outcomes.
"Roddey, Audrey and Steve are naturals for the Studer Group Fire Starter Hall of Fame," Studer assured.
