Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year from all your friends at Tuomey Healthcare System.

See you all in 2010!

The Lights of Christmas

If you haven’t stopped by Tuomey lately, now’s the time to visit. The main hospital lobby, the Women’s Pavilion, the Outpatient Surgery Center and our Calhoun Street entrance are beautiful right now, thanks to the Christmas trees decorated and sponsored by so many friends of Tuomey. The decorations are incredible – handmade ornaments, traditional bright red balls, beautiful white lights – these trees have it all!

And the best part? In addition to brightening up the hospital, all proceeds are going toward Tuomey’s Hospice program. More than $50,000 has been raised this year alone through our Festival of Trees program. The Tuomey Foundation does an incredible job with this event each year, and the chairman of this event, J. Grady Locklear, gives his heart and soul to this festival, year after year. Thank you Dr. Locklear – it’s an understatement to say that we could not do this without you.

Each year, as we kick off the Festival of Trees and Circle of Lights program, we have a special Hospice family who turns on the lights at the opening program. They really get the event started, and help us to all remember why we do what we do. This year we were so proud to have the Moses family with us to do the honors. I cannot begin to tell you how much this family means to me personally, and to the history of this hospital (and entire community). The lights were turned on this year in memory of Tat Moses, one of our long-time employees who recently passed away from cancer. On hand were her husband, Richard Moses, and children, Dr. Henry Moses, a surgeon, and Mary Deakin, an RN at Tuomey. Richard served on the Tuomey board for more than 25 years, and has remained such a dedicated supporter of this hospital. We’re so blessed to have this family in our community.

If you can’t make it down to visit the trees, check them out on-line. There’s a great slide show at www.tuomey.com, showcasing the opening night’s event. It’s worth a visit.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Tuomey Home Health Wins BIG

When it comes to Home Health care, I’ve always known we have the best in the business. Now we have the national accolades to prove it. If you didn’t get a chance to read Belton White’s article in last week’s Item, click here to read the article.

Headed up by Kathy McMaster and Kim Price, you won’t find a more comprehensive program anywhere. If it can be done with a doctor’s order in your home, we can take care of it. And apparently better than just about anyone. Tuomey’s Home Health team was recognized recently with a 2009 Summit Award from Press Ganey, a company that partners with more than 10,000 healthcare facilities to rate and survey customer satisfaction.

Tuomey was one of only 74 winners at the national meeting, and the ONLY one who provides in-home services. The Tuomey program was recognized for maintaining an extremely high level of patient satisfaction over a three-year period. In fact, their patient satisfaction scores were in the 95th percentile or higher for those three years.

In addition to this incredible honor, the Home Health team was also named to the 2009 HomeCare Elite, a compilation of the top performing home health agencies in the U.S. This annual review identifies the top 25 percent of agencies and then highlights the top 500 within that group. Winners are ranked by an analysis of quality outcomes and improvement, as well as financial performance.

Manager Kim Price gives all the credit to her staff, but I want to take this time to applaud everyone – from the top of this department down. You give incredible clinical care, obviously, but that extra touch is really what makes you all shine. You are focused on the patient and his or her family; you always seem to work with a joyful spirit; and the patient comes first –every single time.

If you’re not really sure what all Home Health can do, check us out at www.tuomey.com/outreach/inhomeservices. I promise – you won’t find anyone who can do it better!

Being thankful

We all know the tradition. You sit around the table telling everyone what you’re thankful for this year. A good job. Some savings. Healthy children. Most of us have some sort of tradition that goes that way, me included. And one of the things that I am thankful for is our wonderful hospital. The people that work at Tuomey are incredible. Let me tell you a quick story, and I think you’ll agree just how incredible they really are.

We had a case last year that was heart-breaking. One of those gut-wrenching stories that brings tears to your eyes. We had a lady on our oncology floor who had terminal cancer. She was going to die, and it was going to happen soon. Unfortunately, sometimes when people get cancer, no one can cure them. They die. And that in itself is heartbreaking. But you see, her husband was in ICU – and his prognosis at the time was not very good either. And they had two boys – 18 & 15.

Can you just imagine? Being that young and watching both of your parents slip away, on separate floors in a hospital – and you are not even out of your teens. Heart-breaking.

Members of the nursing staff and some of our case managers wanted to do something. Anything. The boys just wanted their family together. So that’s what they did. In her final hours, staff members pushed the mom’s bed into the ICU and placed her beside her husband. There they would lie beside each other – one last time, and the boys would have their family together. The staff took pictures. One last family portrait.

The mom died soon after that, and the oldest son was joining the military to help support his younger brother. And our staff couldn’t change the outcome, but they could bring that family together one last time. One last memory.

That’s the kind of people we have here at Tuomey. I hope we never have to repeat the events in this case, but if we do, that’s what I’m thankful for this year. People like this. People who really care.

I also want to give thanks for this special place that we call home and for all the people who make it special. We give thanks for a baby’s cry and for a family’s happy tears because of a talented, caring team of doctors and nurses.

We give thanks for a life saved and the technology – and the technician – that allowed it to be so. We give thanks for a therapist that helped a loved one return to being the person they were – and better.

We give thanks for allowing us to be a shoulder to cry on, a hand to lift you up and a heart to care about your path ahead. We give thanks for a single heartbeat, because in that brief moment resides the difference that makes miracles.

We give thanks for the miracles that happen at Tuomey every day, and for Sumter and her citizens, as you allow us to be a part of your lives.

Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at Tuomey.

Home of the Brave

Since Veteran’s Day was last week, I started thinking about the military and what a great service they do. We are so blessed as a country to have the freedoms we enjoy. We live our lives – mostly – in peace. We go to bed at night, wake up the next day, send the kids out the door, head out to the office and go about our business. We don’t think much about our safety, our borders, our country. It’s just expected. You know, we Americans in general are a little spoiled. And I like that. I like knowing that I don’t have to worry about bombings in my city. And I’ve never had to worry about someone strapping themselves with dynamite and driving into the restaurant I’m sitting in. It’s a good feeling, and one that most of us take for granted.

So for today, I am not going to take it for granted. I’m going to look around the town and appreciate it all – if only for today, I hope you’ll do the same. Think about the stories we hear on the news. Look at what’s happening in Iraq and Afghanistan. And know for today that someone is looking out for you. Someone is wearing armor and helping to keep terror from our shores. Soldiers and airmen are fighting and willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to keep us free.

I am so proud of Shaw Air Force Base, and the men and women who serve there. I have known some incredible individuals who have come through Shaw. And there are plenty more who will serve there in the future. We talk about the economic impact Shaw brings to our community, and that is important. Their fiscal impact is real. They buy homes, cars, groceries in our community. They send their children to school here and they pay taxes too. But the real impact is their service. Their service to us, our community, our country. They keep us safe.

And soon, we’ll have the Third Army here as well. We’ve already started welcoming some of their members to our community, and we are looking forward to meeting more over the next two to three years. We’ve always had a great relationship with our Air Force neighbors and I’m sure we’ll make the Army feel just as welcome. It’s the least we can do.

Also, I can’t write a blog like this without mentioning our very own General. We have been so blessed to have retired Gen. Tom Olsen as the chairman of our Tuomey Foundation board since it began in 1995. He was a true American hero and leader in Desert Storm. And he’s absolutely committed to the Sumter community and Tuomey today.

So, if only for today, remember how lucky we are to live, work and play in this great country. God Bless America!

“This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave.” ~Elmer Davis

The Miracle of Medicine

Many of you know that I’ve been in healthcare for a long time. You might however not know just how long. I started in 1966 when I was 15 years old. I worked part-time in Charlotte at Presbyterian Hospital, where I carried luggage up and down the elevators for the patients. I made 85 cents an hour. It was a good job; it was hard work and I learned a lot about people.

One of the things that I learned quickly was a lesson in faith. People – in general – have a lot of faith in their doctors. They did back then, and they still do today. And rightly so in almost all cases. Although we now research our own diseases on the internet, and we learn about medicines from TV commercials, we still have a tremendous amount of faith in what our doctors tell us. They have an expertise that’s very special. It’s a gift.

Here at Tuomey, I have worked with some incredible physicians. Men and women who practice medicine with their minds and their hearts. And although there are countless stories out there – about the lives they’ve touched – I want to take time today to tell you about two very special doctors.

Ben Raffield came to the Tuomey Emergency Department late last year with severe stomach pain. He knew it was no ordinary stomachache, but he had no idea how serious his condition was. He was admitted to Tuomey, and soon diagnosed with an aortic aneurysm – oftentimes, a fatal diagnosis. Fortunately for Ben, he was being taken care of by vascular surgeon Dr. Hans Brings. Since the aneurysm was at 11 cm, and they usually rupture between 5 and 6 cm, they were running out of time. In a five-hour surgery, with the odds stacked against him, Dr. Brings saved Ben’s life. In just over a week, Ben walked out of the hospital and back into his life – taking care of his grandson and planting his garden. I’m still amazed every time I hear this story. If we didn’t have Dr. Brings in our community, we’d probably not have Ben Raffield either.

Dr. James Goodson is another man who provides a tremendous level of care. Just ask Ann McJunkin. I don’t know anyone who could sing his praises any better. At 73 years old, Ann had worn glasses for more than 60 years. It was a part of her life that she had just become accustomed to. But a few years ago, she needed cataract surgery. Unfortunately, the surgery did not go as planned. That’s when she went to visit Dr. Goodson. He was able to discover exactly what went wrong and got her the care she needed. Ann recently told the folks at Tuomey that “being able to see at a distance is such a gift,” and that “had it not been for the advice of Dr. Goodson,” she would still be wearing those thick glasses. “He’s the only person I trust with my eyes,” Ann said. And now, after more than 60 years, she doesn’t need glasses at all. What a lovely lady!

I could go on and on, but I think you get the picture. What a blessing it is to live in Sumter and work every day with the wonderful physicians we have on staff. I couldn’t ask for a better job.

Jay Cox

“REALLY?”

Those who know me well are now wondering, “REALLY?” You see, I don’t email. I’d still rather pick up the phone and call someone. Seriously. I do not email. When you are running a hospital – working with folks who take care of people every day – they need to see you, and they need to hear you. It’s my philosophy, and it has worked well for more than 30 years now.

I am smart enough to know, however, that people do get a lot of information from our website, from Facebook, the internet in general. They Twitter (although with that one I’m still not quite sure why.) And I use the internet. I like to see what other people think about the world, healthcare, our country. SO, here we go. I am starting a blog.

I am not claiming to be an expert. I learn something new just about every day. However, I have been in this healthcare business a long time. I have the gray hairs to prove it. So I’m going to start this blog to share with you my thoughts, opinions and passionate feelings on healthcare, Tuomey and probably a few other topics that strike me on certain days. I love what I do. I work with some of the best people in the business of taking care of people. I would put them up against anyone in the country. And I can’t wait to tell you their stories.

I plan on writing this blog at least once a week. It will always be MY OPINION. Not the board of Tuomey, not the medical staff, not our employees. It will be mine, and mine alone. I might sometimes step on some toes. And that’s OK. That happens when you are talking about important things. People have differing opinions, and that’s OK, too. If you like what I’m writing, let us hear from you. If you don’t like what I’m saying, I want to hear that too. It’s important that we Americans discuss difficult decisions. And right now, there is probably nothing more difficult on the table than healthcare.

We’ll definitely look into those complex issues next week, but for right now – since this is my first entry – I want you to know more about me. Who I am; where I’m coming from. We’re all a product of our raising, and my beliefs have instilled in me a few traits. I like people who are honest, and I want them to tell me the truth. In these conversations over the years, I’ve learned a few things. I think this list will give you a good idea of who I am and where I am coming from.

Here’s what I’ve learned:

• Westerns are still good movies. I want to be the guy in the white hat.
• If your mom wouldn’t be proud of what you are doing, don’t do it.
• My wife is the smartest person I know. Period.
• Even really good people can sometimes make dumb decisions. Don’t hold it against them forever.
• Forgiveness makes us all feel better.
• Hire good people, then LEAVE THEM ALONE to do what you hired them to do.
• Smile. It’s easier.
• Think before you act.
• Work hard each day. You’ll feel better when you sleep at night.
• Always tell the truth. Always! That’ll help you sleep at night too.
• Children grow up too fast.
• Grandchildren are the sweetest things on earth.
• Your FAITH really does carry you through difficult times.
• The Golden Rule really is golden.
• Think about how your actions are going to affect others.
• Eat more salads. Exercise more.
• People are basically good.
• Hugs are great.
• Elect smart, honest people to office – on all levels of government.
• Be kind, say a prayer and be thankful for what you do have.

There. That should give you enough to know where I am coming from. I am very excited about this blogging opportunity. And I can’t wait to see you next week! Take care!

Jay Cox
President & CEO