"Hospital CEO: 'Trust me'"

Danville Register & Bee
Saturday, January 19, 2008

Sitting in his office with almost 90 days under his belt as CEO of the hospital, Jerel Humphrey said the theme for his leadership is building trust, even though he knows it will take time for the community to trust Danville Regional Medical Center again.
Humphrey said he hopes he has taken that first step by buying a home in Danville.
“Wherever I go to speak to any group, I tell them that I’ve bought a house, and they all clap,” Humphrey said with a laugh.
Former hospital CEO Art Doloresco never moved to Danville, which became a source of irritation to the community.
Humphrey cited the recent changes in the dietary contract as the perfect example of how he wants to build trust by the way he does business.
“We have had a contract with Aramark for 30 years for our dietary department, but we recently moved them to a contract with Danville Regional,” he said. “We offered a job to any employee who wanted and qualified for one. We made them ‘whole’ from Aramark to Danville Regional as far as tenure and salary.
“We went to the employees and explained to them that they would be fairly dealt with, and then that’s what we did. We kept them informed.
“It is a concrete example of how we will do business in the future.”
Humphrey cited another example of “walking the walk” and not just “talking the talk.”
“We signed a $600,000 copier contract with a local company rather than going national,” he said. “We can’t always go local, but we will try.
“I don’t know how to do it any other way but to be up front.”
Humphrey said what has gone on at Danville Regional has been “unprecedented” and cited a void of leadership, but said that the feedback he has gotten shows the hospital is making progress.
“Becky Logan has been hired as the new chief nursing officer, but she has only been here a little longer than I have,” Humphrey said. “Mark Anderson has just started as the chief financial officer, and we are close to bringing on a chief operating officer.
“So we are still putting our team together and putting the pieces together.”
He is optimistic about the condition of the hospital, however.
“There are good things going on,” Humphrey said. “With more than 1,000 employees, we are the third largest employer in the (area) behind Goodyear and Pittsylvania County Schools.
“Our salary and wages in 2006 were more than $60 million.”
Plus, he said, the family is enjoying Danville.
Humphrey and his wife have bought a home in Pinetag, and the couple’s youngest daughter Rachel is a junior in high school and will be attending Tunstall High School.
“We clearly understood that the administration needed to live here,” Humphrey said. “Rachel’s been a real pro about moving when she’s a junior in high school. She’s a very independent girl.”
The CEO said he has made three overall observations since he has been in Danville.
“The people in Danville are open and friendly,” Humphrey said, “there is a great future with all the economic development initiatives, and nobody knows how to merge.”
But, joking aside, Humphrey said changes are being made at the hospital that he hopes will change the community’s perception, although he readily admits that those changes will take time.
He challenged the community to change their communication a little also.
“I challenge people to not say ‘Lifepoint’ but to say ‘Danville Regional Medical Center,’” he said. “Think of this as the community’s hospital and not Lifepoint (the hospital’s owner). The issue I’m trying to put in front is that we are making decisions locally.”
He likened the hospital to a Charlie Brown metaphor in which Lucy promises to hold the football for Charlie to kick and then always pulls it out at the last minute.
“In the past, we haven’t done things (openly), and there is a healthy amount of skepticism, so (it) will take time to build trust,” Humphrey said. “That is my overall theme, and that takes time.”