NEWSMAKERS
January 27, 2016
Longtime Vandebilt coach passes away
January 27, 2016
The trophy case at Thibodaux Regional Medical Center is running out of room.
The past year was another big one for the local hospital, which prides itself on patient-centered excellence.
TRMC CEO Greg Stock applauded his hospital’s progress in the past year, calling it a continuation of the norm for the local medical facility, which has established itself as one of the leaders in Louisiana in quality patient care.
Stock said he’s proud of the acclaim the hospital has received, citing eight or more national awards it earned for patient experience over the past 12 months.
The CEO said it shows the continued commitment to put the community and its people first – staples that he said are the medical facility’s biggest assets as it approaches the future and the current downward economy.
“We’ve made continual gains in our quest to be a leader in wellness,” Stock said. “We want to help people live longer. We’ve really done an excellent job in improving our quality of care here at TRMC, and that’s saying something because we were already at a pretty high level to begin with. Now, we’re at the top 5 percent in the country, and that’s something we’re proud of and something we cling to.”
Wellness and continual quality care were at the center of most of Stock’s thoughts about 2015 – a year that he said the hospital and its employees should be proud of.
At the center of that push in 2016 is a multi-million dollar medical facility that will be a game changer in local medicine – a massive facility that has Stock and others with TRMC beaming with pride.
Construction is ongoing on TRMC’s Wellness Center – a $60 million project that will change the landscape of local health care and wellness education.
The facility will aim to improve the area’s all-around quality of life through a focus on prevention, fitness, wellness education, rehabilitation and specialized sports training and services.
Stock said work on the building is ongoing and nearing its completion. The hospital CEO said he hopes it will open in May or June – just in time to be rolling for the 2016 football season.
The facility will have an imaging center, sports medicine center, neurosciences center, spine center, lap pool, warm-water therapy pools and everything needed for urgent care and weight management.
The facility was originally slated to open in early 2016, but Stock said part of the slight delay is the intricacies of the machinery in the center, which sometimes need lots of work to be properly installed and put in place.
“We’re so excited about it,” Stock said. “And we think the public is pretty excited, too, based on what we’re hearing. It’s innovative. It’s groundbreaking. It makes a strong statement about the importance of wellness and how we prioritize that at the utmost importance in what we do.”
TRMC Coordinator of Sports Medicine Larry D’Antoni agrees.
D’Antoni said that the facility will show exactly how far TRMC is willing to go in its continued mission to service the people of the Houma-Thibodaux area.
The hospital’s push arguably took root in 2010 when TRMC’s Sports Medicine Program was born, which sent athletic trainers to all of the area’s high schools.
With a full-fledged Wellness Center on the way, D’Antoni said he’s giddy at the prospects for the future.
“To think of where we were when we started to some of the things we’re doing now, it’s pretty amazing,” he said. “We’ve come a long way, and we’re really proud of where things are headed.”
In addition to the push for continued wellness for all citizens of Houma-Thibodaux, Stock said he takes pride in two other victories the hospital earned in 2015.
First, the hospital CEO said TRMC has been aggressive at eliminating its excess expenditures in an overall effort to become more efficient.
Stock said that goal became reality in the past year when it was learned that TRMC was the most efficient hospital in the area by what he deems a fairly wide margin.
“Our operating costs were one-third less than others in our area,” Stock said. “That’s important to us. We want to be more efficient. We have to be more efficient in this economic climate. In this industry, there’s a lot of waste, and we aim to cut as much of it as we can.”
The second victory for TRMC comes in employee satisfaction. Stock said a recent survey found that TRMC ranked in the top 5 percent nationally among hospitals in employee satisfaction.
Stock said that’s a major win for TRMC – a hospital with 1,200 full-time staffers.
“Employees are the key to almost everything,” Stock said. “We’re so grateful to ours, and so happy to have the family-like work environment that we have. They are the ones who are responsible for all of the great things we’re talking about. They are the ones who are why we can say with promise that 2016 promises to be a good year.” •
