Hospital board hears from third management company

February 9, 2012

The Memorial Hospital of Texas County Board of Control heard from hospital management company NewLight Healthcare at a special meeting on Tuesday night. The Austin, Texas-based company specializes in managing rural hospitals, and currently manages the Cimarron Memorial Hospital in Boise City. The company is also working in various capacities with the hospitals in Beaver, and in Dalhart, Texas.
“We’re very familiar with this area and we’d love to grow and help you out, as well,” said Todd Biederman, founder and CEO of NewLight Healthcare. “Our leadership team has proven success in hospital management.”
Biederman said the company focuses on four distinct areas: Financial performance, Operations, Mission and core values, and Staff Assessment and Management. The company will work with the existing executive team or place their own on-site management team that the hospital board approves.
Biederman said what makes NewLight stand out is its mission and core values.
“I would call it ‘business from the heart,’” Biederman said. “We use a tool called the cultural transformation tool. It surveys the entire hospital, including the board and medical staff. It can be done Online or filled out in hard copy.”
The survey consists of three questions: What are your personal values, top 10 values that represent the current culture of the hospital, and the third is to pick the 10 values that represent your desired culture?
“What happens then is you take that data and figure out where you may have some issues,” Biederman said. “Typically in a hospital you’re going to have some values that come up in the current culture that come up (like) blame, conflict.
“Then you need to set up a program to help eliminate that.”
The company would retain a leadership team that embodies those values and instill accountability throughout the organization with key operational benchmarks and financial reporting.
Lee Hughes, CEO of Cimarron Memorial Hospital in Boise City went through that process in the recent past. He said 35 percent of everybody’s day prior to NewLight’s arrival was spent on blame, gossip and conflict.
“We were able to identify and create an open culture, had a few conversations that needed to be had, and cleared the air,” Hughes said. “It was open. And people now are friends who hadn’t spoken in 20 years. Productivity has increased. Everybody works together and it’s a fun environment to work in.
“Not only did employee morale increase, but patient satisfaction increased.”
NewLight partners with Equalize RCM, which provides revenue cycle management like strategic consulting, claims auditing and back office billing. Their billing expertise is built on their experience outsourcing claims adjudication for health plans.
Biederman said Memorial Hospital is facing financial trend right now that is not a positive one.
“The trend right now is not in the right direction,” Biederman said. “Looks like it may be improving a little bit in January, but we definitely think it needs to be addressed.”