CEO: National Hospital Week

May 11, 2022

by Scott Thoreson, CCMH Chief Executive Officer

National Hospital Week takes place this week, May 8-14, and highlights the important role that hospitals play across the country in helping keep people healthy and addressing the needs of the sick and injured.

The origins of “National Hospital Day” goes back to 1921 to encourage trust in hospitals in the wake of the 1918 Spanish flu outbreak when approximately 675,000 people died in our country from this disease. There have been many comparisons lately with the Spanish flu in light of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Hospitals didn’t have the best of reputations back in those days and hospitals were regarded as places where patients went to die. U.S. President Warren G. Harding honored the famous nurse, Florence Nightingale, and picked May 12, her birthday, to honor the famed nurse who set initial standards for hospital quality during the Crimean War of 1854. National Hospital Day was expanded to National Hospital Week in 1953 to give hospitals more time to educate the public about medical care.

Many things have changed in the last 100 years and hospitals have a much better reputation as places where people come in for services and the vast majority of them get discharged to go home. Hospitals are an important part of the community’s infrastructure with the services they provide, along with the employment that is provided in the hospital. Many other businesses and the growth of the community are impacted by the presence of, or lack of, a hospital. At CCMH, we employ 234 individuals, or approximately 209 full-time equivalents which equates to those that work an approximate 40-hour work week or greater. Our payroll for our last completed fiscal year was $13.9 million and our benefit cost was $4.6 million. Of course, our employees circulate their earnings locally and a generally accepted method is to assume that these dollars churn 3 times before they leave the area. Thus, hospital employees are responsible for approximately $42 million annually in economic vitality for Carrollton and Carroll County.

Our employees are certainly the key to our past and future success. There is a great deal of longevity amongst our employee group and currently our longest employed CCMH employee has been with us for 40 years. As a group, our employees total 1,845.75 years of experience working as a CCMH employee, which breaks down to an average of 7.89 years per CCMH employee. There is a lot of comfort for patients who have continuity of caregiving personnel and it also says a lot about the organization when employees decide to stay.

During Hospital Week this year, the following activities are on tap to celebrate our employees and highlight benefits to the community that come with having a thriving and vibrant hospital in our midst. Events for employees include a breakfast hosted by the Directors, games, gifts, carnival duck races and a special visit by Foley’s Sweet Treats. Events open to the community include a Blood Drive, the annual Drive-Thru Community Picnic to be held in the 4 Corners Café Parking Lot from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Friday, May 13, and CCMH Run for Your Life 5K Run/Walk at 6 p.m. Friday, May 13.

I hope this article has provided a bit more of an insight about Hospital Week and why it is such a big deal. I would encourage you to reach out to your friends, family members and neighbors, who work at CCMH, and express your appreciation to them – the last two years have been especially difficult. We consider our patients as our neighbors and view us as taking care of family members as we interact with our patients. I wish you good health!

Carroll County Memorial Hospital

News

CEO: National Hospital Week

May 11, 2022