October marked one full year since being named CEO of Memorial Regional Health. We have had a busy year and made some very positive changes. When I became CEO, I said I had two priorities — our people and our finances. It is impossible to run a health care organization without good people, and you cannot recruit and retain good people without strong finances.

Our financial position is much stronger as we near the end of the year. We started the year with only 20 days of operating cash in the bank, and I am happy to report that we will end 2022 with nearly 55 days of operating cash. It is a healthier cash position than we have had in a long time, and we will continue to make that a focus in 2023.

In order to recruit and retain good people, I knew we needed to turn our attention to the culture at MRH. To gauge how we are doing with our culture, we survey our employees annually. This year over 75% of our employees took the survey, and the question that saw the biggest increase was regarding how satisfied the employee is with MRH as a place to work. Over 87% answered that they were satisfied — up from 69% last year. We’ve also seen a 12% decrease in employee turnover this year, from an abysmal 42% in 2021 to 30% as of October 2022. This is a good start but our goal for 2023 is to reduce turnover to no more than 23%.

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Heading into 2023, we recognize that the economy is a concern for everyone. We will be giving 2.5% cost of living raises to staff in December of this year, and we are budgeting for a 3% cost of living increase in 2023. We also are not raising the cost our employees will pay for their health insurance, despite a 13% increase from the insurance company. MRH will absorb this increase.

Our financial goals for 2023 include increasing our operating cash to 65 days and reducing our days in accounts receivable. Our quality goals will continue to track measures that directly impact patients like readmission rates and hospital acquired infections (which is at 0% for 2022).

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My first year as CEO has gone by quickly, and I’m excited about the direction we are headed. As always, I welcome your calls and feedback. Since this is my last communication this year, I wish you all Happy Holidays, a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Jennifer Riley is the chief executive officer at Memorial Regional Health.