healthcare executive of the year rebekah smith, port huron 8 <strong>spring</strong> <strong>2016</strong> BlueWaterWoman.com team effort by Patti Samar Change is good. If that is, indeed, the case, then Rebekah Smith, RN, president and chief executive officer at Lake Huron Medical Center in Port Huron, has been surrounded by all kinds of goodness over the past year and a half. In that time frame, Smith guided the hospital through significant change: a change in ownership and a change in business model as the institution went from a nonprofit entity to a for-profit entity. Formerly known as St. Joseph Mercy Port Huron, the hospital was part of a large Catholic healthcare organization. Now owned for-profit by Prime Healthcare Services, the institution is poised to invest millions of dollars in order to provide enhancements and additional healthcare services to the facility and the community. Smith helmed the institution through the entire sale of the hospital and, for her exceptional leadership efforts during a time of great change, Smith has been named Blue Water Woman Healthcare Executive of the Year. She was nominated by Laura Cottengim, the director of marketing and strategic development at the hospital. “There were three things I tried to stay focused on throughout the transition,” said Smith. “First and foremost was the patient. We needed to ensure that quality care was not only maintained, but improved. “Secondly, I needed to be conscientious of the staff. They provide that care. I wanted them to feel assured that while they might not know all of the answers to all of their questions throughout the process, they knew they could trust that their best interests were in the forefront of my mind. “And third was the community. We are here to serve and we provide some economic stability. As a for-profit organization, that means we are paying taxes now which is good for the community.” As a registered nurse and healthcare administrator, Smith has spent her entire career caring for patients and caring about the staff that cares for the patients. But this hospital holds a special place in her heart as she was born there and grew up just down the street. She has a real passion for the institution and she wanted to make sure it was being properly cared for throughout the transition. “I recognized that this transition will be my legacy,” she said. “I told my staff that this will be history-making. We talked about that and how this is a journey. I knew it was going to take every single person in this organization to do this transition. It took a team to do this. “The staff kept the patient at the forefront throughout this. They lived amongst the noise and the unknown and I say that with the utmost respect and awe for the people who work here. They are the heroes, by far.” Improvements to the hospital planned by Prime include a new radiation therapy unit, which will further enhance the hospital’s oncology services. Smith noted that Prime focuses on preventative health in many innovative ways, as well. “They focus on population health by looking at the whole person,” she said. “It’s about preventing disease. Let’s make our community healthy.” She also noted that approximately 50 to 60 new jobs will be created as a result of the transition to being a member of the Prime family. “They ‘unregionalize’ services,” she said, noting that large health systems often central services such as billing. “They believe that healthcare is local and that the business should be taken care of locally.” Though the sale of the hospital was obviously a huge undertaking, Smith believes the long hours and hard work on the part of the staff will be worth it for the community in the long run. “I knew I was in this place at this time for that reason,” she said. “There is nobody who could care about these people – our staff – more than I do. And when our community trusts that we are keeping them safe, then we’re doing our job,” she said.
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