My tour of the new CHS Behavioral Health Campus

On Saturday, April 5, 2014, Carolinas Healthcare System held a fun four hour open house event in Davidson, NC at the new Behavioral Health Campus.

The facility looked liked a "nice hotel" that you can "check in," but you can NOT "check out."  According to the tour guide, the patients admitted to this facility will have short-term mental health challenges.  The patient's rooms cater to their privacy, and their protection from suicidal attempts by hanging and electrocution. ( So no headboards, no footboards, no open handles.)

In the common area, all the chairs are weighted down to avoid use as a projectile in a fight, but one may need some "hip action" to even pull the chairs out far enough to sit.  Yes, the chairs felt "that heavy" to me.

I will also tell you that the cool blue colors of the patient rooms were nice, but the rooms still felt like solitary confinement.  I am sure it is better than institutionalized white cement walls, but nonetheless, the confinement felt real to me.

They do have an outpatient therapy department.  That side of the facility will be run like a regular doctor's office except it is only for mental health counselling.

This Davidson Campus is an extension of the CMC-Randolph Behavioral Health campus.

There is a cafeteria and gym/recreational room for recreational therapy on site at this Davidson location.

CHS Board of Commissioners Meeting -March 2014

So I finally took the time to attend a Carolinas Healthcare System Board of Commissioners Meeting.  It was a very formal and orderly meeting. The CHS Corporate Communications representatives were very kind and attentive to its Press and Media guests.  Diversity and Inclusion seemed to be embraced based on the vibe and mix in the room(s).  The Carolinas Healthcare System that I met at this executive level meeting was far different from the Carolinas Healthcare System that the employees and former employees have to deal with.

The Carolinas Healthcare System that I witnessed was excited about improving CHS patients' experiences by implementing more electronic or web based interactions with their medical staff.  They were excited about the upcoming grand opening of their new Davidson Behavioral Health Campus.

In addition,  they were pleased to announce their latest national outreach program called "Mental Health First Aid" as well as to update everyone on their wellness project "Pre-Diabetes Challenge."

Overall, community outreach and improving patient care regardless of their ability to pay seemed to be the prevailing theme within this meeting. I was very impressed.

It was the perfect meeting.  The representatives from the Charlotte Observer and the Business Journal seemed to know the usual routine and asked what seemed to be routine questions unless some major announcement hits the news before the meeting.

My questions to the executives included summarizing CHS' journey into the electronic medical records age and how they felt about it.  They overall felt that the good outweighed the bad, and that CHS was in a widespread adoption of  EMRs in CHS Physician practice locations.

I also asked them if the 340B Program was also beneficial to them.  Their response was that as a non-profit organization who is using the program as it is designed to be used, that program is very important to them and hopes that it stays in tact.

Overall, the Carolinas Healthcare System Board of Commissioners meeting is about finances, new business developments, hospital awards, and community standing.

Post Acute Care Services were not highlighted at this particular Board meeting nor employee satisfaction scores. The Human  Resources' responsibility of putting "Patients First" apparently is never really discussed at these Board meetings according to the responses from the other reporters present.  The Board meetings are strictly finance driven.

So my question:  When is CHS Human Resources ever held accountable for employee satisfaction? Does the employee turnover rate really matter in the grand scheme of things?

The perfect world and the perfect meeting that I witnessed was a huge contrast to the office politics and the daily grind that the "front-line" CHS employees have to deal with every single day.

I sincerely hope that articles such as this one will assist in bringing awareness of gaps and generating solutions to bridge these gaps. Customer satisfaction should start with the internal customers which are the CHS employees, then the external customers (i.e. the patients) will reap from that overflow.

This may be my "old school" way of thinking, but I know that high employee morale goes a long way.