Salem Memorial Hospital held a meet-and-greet at the Salem Senior Center on Thursday, April 6. Business Development Coordinator Charity Gott and CEO Wayne Reid sat down with patrons of the center to discuss the services available at their local hospital.
“We have a new CEO, a new CFO, who unfortunately couldn’t be here today, and our Chief Nursing Officer. We thought it would be great to come out and get more involved with our community, meet people in the community, to get their feedback and answer their questions,” said Gott.
Reid said the event is an opportunity to inform the local community that many health services can be provided locally, without the need to travel long distances for care.
“Charity has been working hard on this. I think we need an awareness of what we can do in our community. What are the things that we have? I know we’ve got a billboard that shows we have an MRI, but what does that mean? How does that get somebody back to health? How does that get them back into the community? What can we do here? What are the services we provide?” said Reid.
Reid also said the hospital is working with the Dent County Health Department on initiatives to improve the “social determinants of health”, to become more than a provider of healthcare – a provider of health.
“We’ll talk about services we provide, about why it’s important that we’re here, and how we can connect ourselves into the greater community. What are some things we’re doing locally to keep people inside our market?” said Reid. “Because we believe it’s important for folks to be able to get their healthcare close to home and get quality care here. I know that whenever I have to drive away it’s difficult. Our parking is much simpler, navigating our hospital is much simpler, you’re going to see people that you know there, and we’re going to treat you like family as opposed to a number,” said Reid.
Gott shared that she had seen the impact that inconvenient healthcare can have on a patient’s life.
“I think it’s really about educating our community on the services we provide and can offer. I had a friend who would drive her mother all the way to Columbia because that’s what her doctor said to do, and the entire time we could have been just getting that scheduled at our local hospital. She was 74, it was very hard on her health to make that drive,” said Gott. “You can actually stay right here in Salem and get that done right here.”
Reid says he wants to make Salem Memorial the best place to get care for cases that are appropriate for a local hospital.
“I tell people all the time. There’s a place for huge academic centers, and there’s a place for bigger city medicine. They do great work and I’ve worked in those environments, and we were very proud of what we did. Like I said, if you have a condition that you’re going to have named after you, you want to go to an academic center. If you’ve just got pneumonia, that’s probably not the best place for you, because the care levels will be good, but they won’t be as personal as they will be here,” said Reid. “Our intent here is to make Salem the best place for you to get your healthcare for anything that’s appropriate for here. I come from environments where we turn hospitals into some of the best in the country, and if you’ve got pneumonia, or you need an MRI, if you need a wellness visit, you should be able to know that Salem Memorial is the best place for you to go. Not just a place to go, and not the convenient place to go, but the best place to go.”
According to Reid, the hospital’s current focus is on quality, availability, and convenience.
“We’ve recently put a new quality director in, Angela Christensen, and she’s been doing wonderful work. We’ve realigned some leaders within the organization. We’re focusing on making sure that quality is there, and the care is available and convenient. When I got here, I would say that getting into our clinic was somewhat cumbersome. I think it’s dramatically better now.”
Gott reiterated Reid’s sentiment.
“Our clinic growth has been phenomenal. We’ve had a lot of new patients that were seen. The wait times are amazing. You can go in and get an appointment just like that!” said Gott. “I’m in, in just 10 minutes!”
Gott and Reid say that new staff and initiatives like the hospital’s Swing Bed Program are making healthcare more accessible and less stressful.
The hospital’s Swing Bed Program is designed to transition patients out of hospitalization to assist in their recovery. Gott said patients recovering from surgeries, injuries, pneumonia, long-term antibiotics, and other medical conditions and procedures that make it difficult to be alone at home can use the Swing Bed Program to receive therapy, assistance, and an easier transition.
“Our Swing Bed (Program) provides you with therapy in-house, and you’re right there in the hospital. So, you don’t have to go to a nursing home, but it builds you back up to be able to go back home safely so you don’t come back to the hospital because you left too soon,” said Gott. “It’s really a great program that keeps you right near home.”
“We’ve just started. But we’ve done an awful lot in the last six months,” said Reid, who became CEO in August of 2022.
Gott agreed.
“We have done a lot. I’ve only been here since December, but you could already see the changes coming in, even from a community perspective. Improvements are happening every day, I think,” said Gott. “We’ve hired some new FNPs, we have Shelly Bland, Samantha Welch and Amber Hogan, and of course we have Jimmy Bell now,” said Gott. “They’re really good to get you in (to see) someone.”
