After 10 years I left

It’s been a very busy winter so far. As can be seen it is a little tough to get back to here as often as I would like, but I want to continue to bring this forward. After the AARC Congress in 2006 I continued along in the position of RC Manager at Regency Hospital of Fort Worth. I really had not realized when I started with Regency what went into starting an LTAC Hospital.

About mid May on 2006 I gave my notice at Kindred. It was a tough ending there. I had had a really good run, I thought. Spring of that year the Kindreds in the DFW area went through some serious belt tightening that was pretty tough for many including me. I had interviewed with the CEO at Regency and had been offered just about exactly what I indicated I needed, foremost of which was ability to hand pick staff and aggressively recruit them, and a true commitment to clinical results. The new Regency Hospital was being built only a few blocks away from the Kindred where I was working. Rumors were flying at Kindred that they would not last, that they were a flash in the pan and that anyone that went to work there would not have a job in a few months. The building was beautiful, the people that were recruiting me were people I knew and trusted, but rumors like that always make one a bit nervous making a decision to change. The pay offered helped though. Working for Kindred I was working full time on salary in IT and working overtime on weekends as RT at any local Kindred that had staffing needs. The offer Regency made me equaled or bettered in one job what I was getting doing one and a half with Kindred. It is just kind of strange how it worked out. If I had any reservation about leaving it was wiped out by the week before I gave notice.

I had made my decision to leave and picked the date that I wanted to give notice. The week before I had chosen to give notice the downsizing started and it was brutal. People that were long time, loyal and highly productive people were let go in what seemed a cold unfeeling way. I am sure that is how it often is, but I hope if I am ever part of administering such an event that I find some way to inject some greater amount of humanity into the situation that the people leaving have to go through than was provided by Kindred at that time. Somehow I was passed over in the lay off choices. I think my level of effectiveness and aggressive regional involvement with the company beyond the walls of my main hospital might have the reason. The week before the day I had chosen was tough personally as I said. I was a direct report to the Director of Education (DOE). This was the third DOE I had worked for during my time there in IT, and she had only been hired a few months prior. In my role I was highly supportive of the hospital’s education, particularly orientation. I had worked with my new manager extensively to help her make the process her own. She had struggled somewhat to grasp all of the threads of the very complex and highly involved position and to really put something special together for the orientees that we saw once or twice a month for a week. We were doing a mid month orientation in May of ’06. On Monday and Tuesday of orientation week we did general orientation. The end of the day on Tuesday I would do an airway safety and accidental decannulation training for any clinical staff. On Wednesday the DOE focused on nursing and did a med test and an EKG strip test etc. with nursing staff. On Thursday I did documentation training with the nurses and clinical staff reported to their unit managers to plan unit orientation and to the nursing office to get their schedule on Friday. The week I gave notice I had taken off on Monday to finalize my paperwork with Regency. On Tuesday I came back to the hard facts that several people had been removed from their position. It was already puzzling. People that were totally tasked to the max to do their job were being replaced by people with the same position at one of the other local facilities having to spread their selves between multiple facilities. Before this event we were a pretty tight team. We had worked together through many challenges and generally had a good working relationship and were a friendly group. On the Monday I took off the Purchasing Director and the Plant Ops Director were informed their positions were eliminated and they were asked to pack and go. On Tuesday, I was called to Administration. I wondered if I would be asked to leave, but it turned out I was informed that I would be required to fill my role within my salaried time at all of the Tarrant County facilities. There are four Kindreds in Tarrant Count. I really think that even though you may see savings on paper of salary expenses, when you consider the effectiveness and what you get for your money that spreading good people too thin gets you less to almost nothing, quality and results are sacrificed for the bottom line. As things went it was very tough for these hospitals to compete with the new kid on the block. I was working hard to get at best fair performance from Nursing in following documentation requirements on which surveys and state inspections often hung. How anyone with any sense thought I or any could get the job done at four facilities that I could barely accomplish at one was tough to swallow. The Administrator informed at our meeting that morning that we were to meet again the next day and I was to have a plan for how I was going to accomplish my role at four hospitals. I went back to orientation in the facilities education classroom. When I got there the DOE received a phone call and was asked to come down to Administration. She had no idea and I could not imagine since that role was tougher than mine, but she was told to pack up and leave. She came back to the classroom in the midst of orientation basically crushed. Some how I got nursing supervisors and mangers  to step in and fill in for her orientation presentations until my Airway Safety class and I limped through the day. The next day a previous DOE who was still on staff prn did the nursing orientation day. I had already made my plans to give notice on that Thursday, but I must say that it was with some pleasure that I went to Administration and provided them with my resignation. I was the second employee to leave for the new Regency. Our Case Management Director had given her notice the week before. I left on good terms with everyone that was left, they even gave me a party, but I know they were not happy and before we were rolling at Regency I am sure they were certainly having some heart burn. I went to the Computer Training Room that Thursday and gave as good a ProTouch Nursing Documentation class as ever.  

June of ’06 we started hiring at Regency. I contacted people I knew were good and had many apply that turned out great. We put together a phenomenal starting staff that stuck together through the four years I was there. It really was one of those rare times that almost never happens in the hospital clinical environment where the administration, and the bedside staff come together in a commitment to do in all things what was best for the patient.

 Kindred Hospital Fort Worth Southwest

 Kindred Hospital Fort Worth Southwest

 Kindred Healthcare's Corporate HQ the last time I was 

there for the 7200 Vent Replacement Demos/Project

Regency Hospital of Fort Worth

My passion has always been with doing the best for the patients. Starting up was tough at Regency Fort Worth and we went through a low census period that was an early test for our new hospital, but once we came through that we came up strong in a very tough market. This passion for the patient result is what ultimately attracted me to the RTX. A device that can offers a means of non-invasive support, often prevent intubation, shorten time on vent if intubation is required, can facilitate ventilator weaning, support patients post extubation to provide greater assurance of successful ventilator discontinuance, allow tracheal decannulation, provide long term non-invasive support without risk to facial tissues, and provide the most potent secretion clearance tool ever for patients from 2-350 lbs is the most significant advancement in improving clinical results in bedside respiratory care in my greater than 30 year career. Today’s post is about me, but soon I will get to the BCV part of this blog and offer support of these assertions.