Ms. Allard has been with RVSC since early in its construction phase, which proved to be a huge opportunity for her. "This was a great experience, as one rarely has the opportunity to be involved in the genesis of a center, much less able to set things up in a way that you would want to have your clinical areas. The downside is that you have to live with your own mistakes. Thankfully, I did not make too many."
The staff and physician leadership at RVSC have made Ms. Allard's job enjoyable, she says. "In the past, I inherited less than optimal practices at other institutions and had to redirect care and behavior to have successful patient outcomes and staff performance. RVSC's physician leadership has encouraged and allowed me to direct the care of patients in a way that is competent, congenial and efficient. The staff is patient-oriented and invested in providing optimal care. The medical staff supports all of us to not only provide good care, but acknowledges and rewards our efforts."
Ms. Allard says she tries to instill a sense of ownership in her staff members and provide a supportive environment that allows staff members to perform admirably even when she is not there. For this reason, she has included all levels of staff in many of the center's initiatives. "Our cost containment efforts involve all of the staff," she says. "Our staff is invested in avoiding waste and maintaining our equipment and instruments as if they are their own. The staff is very involved in performance improvement initiatives, which not only gets the job done but makes people more aware of their responsibilities and the outcomes of their actions."
RVSC is also involved with its community, including "adopting" a retirement community and providing its residents with blood pressure screenings and a program that displays their critical medical information for rescue personnel. Ms. Allard says the center also distributed packets to patients during November and December, alerting them to ways to "Spread the word, not the flu."
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