Rick Sutton CEO of SAMC Addresses Dothan Rotary Club

Rickey Stokes

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Posted by: RStokes
[email protected]
334-790-1729
Date: Sep 24 2018 11:03 PM

DOTHAN:     Southeast Alabama Medical Center Chief Executive Officer Rick Sutton was the scheduled speaker at the Dothan Rotary Club today.

The speech was recorded on my IPAD but for some reason I can not get it to play. It was my goal for you to hear the actual speech rather than my trying to describe some of what Sutton said.

SAMC went through optimization where some $ 30 million dollars was cut. Sutton said, “from the horse’s mouth”, his contract did not call for Sutton to get a percentage of the $ 30 million dollar‘s cut. A rumor that was out there and Sutton wanted to clear that rumor up. Sutton went on to say that when he came to Dothan they did not know “optimization” was going to have to be done.

Sutton described, with slides, looking at the past financial performance, years 2013 through 2016, optimization was required. The year 2016 was a red year and things had to get turned around.

Taking MU’S ( do not know how to describe MU’S ) years 2012 through 2016 were in the red years.

Sutton described some balance sheet issues: 2012 Southeast Alabama Medical Center had 244 days of cash, 13.8 ages years on the plant, a 1.3% margin and a rating of A minus.

Year 2016, Southeast Alabama Medical Center had 170 days of cash, 15.8 years age on the plant, a negative 6% margin and a rating of BBB plus.

Year 2018, Southeast Alabama Medical Center had 209 days of cash, 16.6 years on the plant, a 3.75% margin and a rating of A.

Sutton described struggles over the. Past 5 - 7 years as (1) Financials (2) Employee Turnover. Sutton described this as something the management team has targeted and working to get better.

Sutton described Market adjustments  ( $ 7,323,000 ) since 2016 and changing nurse/patient ratios to 5 - 1.

Sutton also described Pyxis implementation which is automated medication carts. This enables nursing staff to have the medications ready to dispense rather than waiting.

Sutton said staff wanted improved food quality/enhancements. SAMC has employed an executive chef and improved/fresh/local purchases.

Sutton has also established Accountability. Inspect what you expect! Everyone wants to be on a high performing team.

Sutton explained several areas:  FIX IT - PERFORM IT - LEAD IT - GROW IT

1. Quality Initiatives:    Emergency Department ( ED ) redesign.

                                   Operating Room ( OR ) redesign

                                   Developed Medical Staff Quality Improvement Committee 

                                   ( MSQIC ) - driving out variation

                                   Implemented Just Culture

Sutton talked about getting physicians on board with how to treat the flu. Physicians could change the treatment care if needed, but that the treatment of the illness was the same way. Sutton described the staff as being prepared that was rather than constant adjustment for different doctors. Sutton emphasized doctors could change that treatment if needed.

Sutton talked about Diversions. Sometimes the cause of diversion is all beds full or not enough nurses for the beds. Sutton described Diversion as a problem all over. That in January there was a flu problem with the public and in February staff had the flu from all of the flu patients.

Sutton talked about Medical Surgical Diversion and Behavioral Medicine Diversion. SAMC is in the process of attempting to add 7 more BMU beds.

Sutton said he has been accused of running physicians off. Sutton told the Rotary Club members there were 233 physicians in May 2016 and today there are 287 physicians.

Sutton told the Rotarians about the Fiancials: (1) SAMC is in positive territory (2) Revenue cycle improvements (3) Value analysis committee to look at all purchases and new requests (4) SAMC can not invest in equities (5) Rumor clarification - No CEO bonus for optimization (6) Land purchases - since SAMC can not invest in equities land purchases is positive for SAMC. Only one land purchase since Sutton has come on board but he has looked at past land purchases and think they were positive.

Sutton wants to expand the footprint of SAMC, westway., same store growth and new locations. He wants to streamline processes to improve throughput - discharge processes, scheduling and etc.

Sutton explained the operating room schedule. SAMC wants to know the doctors first surgery and their 10th. That having the 10th come at 5:30 AM was uncalled for and staff has looked and implemented streamlining that process.

Sutton wants to grow the physician base.

Sutton discussed the branding stategy - who are we?  Southeast Alabama Medical Center, General Hospital, Advanced Home Medical Equipments, AltaCare, Urological Associates, Southeast Cancer Center, Houston Medical Group, Neurospine Center, Westway Medical Office, Heart Rhythm Clinic, Enterprise Medical Clinic, etc...

The new name all entities will come under will be Southeast Health.

Sutton discussed a IMPACT Plan. Discussed changing the building looks, changing the information station, already adding Chic-fil-A, adding a Starbucks, another business I do not remember. Some things not seen is redesign of the kitchen for the cafeteria.

Sutton said in 2020 there will be changes in the Emergency Department. I think he said 55,000 patients a year come through the emergency room.

Sutton closed with they will ignore distractions and not respond to rumors.

Sutton has a plan and full steam ahead. And Sutton gave the impression that his team has the answers and he does not respond to questions.

I hate the video did not work where you could hear Sutton directly. His message was a good message on his work.

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