Newton Independent
Following a year of internal turmoil, administrative turnover and interim management, Skiff Medical Center has announced permanent leadership plans for the city-owned hospital, as well as a streamlined organizational chart.
For a great part of 2009, Skiff saw a number of leadership positions filled on an interim basis by employees of a Kansas-based consulting firm, B.E. Smith. When its contracted service period ended earlier this year, a number of those positions were taken on by Skiff employees in an interim capacity.
On Tuesday, Skiff CEO Steve Long announced that save for the Chief Nursing Officer position, all those leadership roles have now been filled internally.
"At Skiff, we have hundreds of people doing thousands of different tasks every day," Long said, "but all with the same goal in mind - taking great care of our patients. When operations are organized, things run flawlessly. But sometimes they get out of kilter. Key people leaven, new services are added, or the world just plain changes around us."
The jobs and individuals involved are as follows:
- Chief Nursing Officer - Mary Swoboda, currently serving as Chief Nurse Executive at Aurora Medical Center in Two Rivers, Wis. will join Skiff as CNO on April 26. She will oversee the full gamut of patient care services. CEO Long, before his arrival at Skiff in January, worked with Swoboda at the Aurora Medical Center.
- Clinical Operations Officer - Brett Altman assumes this newly created position that will oversee clinical services, including home care, public health, occupational health, rehabilitation, cardiac rehab, physician clinics, rural clinics, the Skiff Specialty Clinic, marketing and public relations and the Skiff Auxiliary. Altman, who served as interim CEO in the two month's prior to Long's arrival, will leave his current position as Director of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. That position will be filled internally by an individual yet to be determined.
- Chief Financial Officer - Controller Mike Anderson, currently serving as interim CFO, will assume the position permanently. He will oversee accounting and payroll, the business office, materials management and laundry, clinical information services and data analysis.
- Human Resources Director - Ellen Graber, serving as interim HR Director since late December, has been named permanent department director.
- Obstetrics Director - Ann Polking, who will continue as interim CNO until Swoboda's arrival in late April, will continue as the permanent OR Director and assume the role OB Director at the end of March. B.E. Smith's Nancy Burke has held the position since last June. Polking will also oversee the areas of quality management, infection control, education and risk management on an interim basis.
- Public Relations Director - PR Specialist Stephanie Alexander, who has overseen the department since early November, has been named permanent PR Director.
- Clinic Information Services Director - Janice Balmer, previously the director of health information services, will now oversee the combined services of HIM, electronic medical records and IT/telecommunications infrastructures. These functions will be managed by Deb Drewis, Dianna Machin and Jim McVey, respectively.
- Financial Analyst - Karri Woody, previously in a clinical function, will assume this role. The job, in part, will replace the position of controller, which will no longer exist.
"We are all ready to move forward," Altman said. "We are going to from very good to very great by utilizing the ideas, input and leadership of the people at Skiff. I look forward to growing together and learning from each other personally and professionally."
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