Lee Elliott
Vice President for Human Resources
SAINT FRANCIS MEDICAL CENTER
SESSION DESCRIPTION In 2000, Saint Francis Medical Center, a rural hospital in central Nebraska, was facing a severe staffing crisis. At that time, there was not enough staff to care for the numbers of patients coming to the hospital. As a result, patients were being sent to other area hospitals for care; physicians were concerned-some thinking about leaving; and there were serious concerns about the long-term consequences for the financial status of the hospital.
Saint Francis called on its many friends in the community-and they truly came through. The results not only addressed the staffing crisis, they led to the partnership winning the Optimas award from Workforce Management along with such giants as Wells Fargo, UPS, Sun Microsystems and others. They also received the Health Awareness Promotion award from the American Medical Association Alliance. Moreover, the work of the partnership has been the subject of many presentations and publications. This presentation will focus on steps taken to address the crisis and the fairly extraordinary results they attained all with limited financial resources.