SMYRNA — StoneCrest Medical Center’s new chief executive officer says the hospital’s future success and growth will be accomplished through his five areas of focus.
Mark E. Sims already has a legal pad full of notes on his plans for the 5-year-old hospital less than two weeks after taking the job. He replaced Neil Heatherly who resigned from the CEO position in late February.
“I am very excited to be here,” Sims said from his modest office in the Smyrna hospital. “Sometimes I have to pinch myself.”
Sims loves being back in Middle Tennessee where he has deep roots.
His first administrative job was working for Southern Hills Medical Center, overseeing Smyrna Medical Center. Just prior to coming to StoneCrest, Sims served as the CEO of TriStar’s Parkridge East Hospital in Chattanooga since 2005 and took on the added responsibilities as the CEO of Parkridge Valley Hospital in 2007.
Sims says StoneCrest needs to focus on operating ethically, working to maintain and hire high-quality staff and physicians, and continuing to operate on a high quality level.
“We want to be among the best in what we do,” Sims said. Sims is a 16-year veteran of TriStar Health Systems, of which StoneCrest is a member.
StoneCrest’s emergency room wait times are well below the national average, for example.
The hospital is set to have 40,000 emergency room visits by the end of the year, and the average time a person spends in the emergency room is less than two hours.
Sims also said StoneCrest must make sure it is performing well financially and can accommodate future growth.
“When you look at just the population growth, it is mind blowing,” he said.
StoneCrest provides services for five zip codes and each are growing between 12 and 22 percent, Sims said.
A part of accommodating this growth is continuing to recruit family and internal medicine physicians on and off the campus, he said.
Sims said the medical center has to stay focused on being the type of facility where physicians want to practice.
“We are in a position where we are going after the best,” he said, speaking of the hospital’s location and programs.
A challenge Sims knows StoneCrest faces is the new Middle Tennessee Medical Center, which is scheduled to open November 2010.
“We respect them; they have a great history in the community,” he said. “We want to get out there and compete.”
Sims said it can, especially with its emergency room, neurology rehabilitation center and Sarah Cannon Cancer Center.
Sims said StoneCrest is in need of a class 2B Neonatal Intensive Care Unit even though the hospital was denied a certificate of need from the state Health Services and Development Agency in February. The hospital sought six intensive care beds.
“The number of births StoneCrest has supports it — physically demands that we have that service on campus,” he said. “Patients want to have that level of service here.”
StoneCrest had 1,458 births at the facility in 2008, up 9.6 percent from the previous year.
Sims said StoneCrest will request the NICU again in the near future.
Erin Edgemon can be reached at 869-0812 and at eedgemon@murfreesboropost.com.
|
Email
Print
Facebook
StumbleUpon
Google
Yahoo!