Hospital ready for growth
Tony Houston, president of CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs, said Wednesday that the hospital is back, strong and ready for growth.
“We’ve got some exciting things going on at the hospital and many of you had a lot to do with why we’re here today and talking about this institution,” Houston told members of Hot Springs National Park Rotary Club during their weekly meeting at the Arlington Resort Hotel & Spa.
“I hope you will take away from this message that St. Vincent in Hot Springs is back, we’re strong, and we’re ready for growth. If you talked to co- workers they would tell many stories of despair and
discouragement and some folks may have thought they had lost what had been built over 125 years, but we’re back,” he said.
The Sisters of Mercy, which had provided health care in Hot Springs for 125 years, announced in April 2014 that St. Vincent Health Systems in Little Rock, a Catholic Health Initiative affiliate, had purchased Mercy Hospital Hot Springs and physician clinic.
The name was later changed to CHI St. Vincent.
Houston said the hospital owes its existence to Sister Catherine McAuley, with the Sisters of Mercy, and Sister Catherine Spalding, with the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth. Spalding’s order founded St. Vincent Infirmary in the spring of 1888 and McAuley’s order founded the former St. Joseph’s Hospital in the fall of 1888, which later became Mercy Hospital Hot Springs.
“Sister McAuley and Sister Spalding both heard the calling to make sure that they left it better than they found it and without question here in Arkansas they did just that.
“So we stand on their shoulders and without them we wouldn’t be here. We’re very proud to be a Catholic health care organization serving not only the people of Hot Springs and Garland County, but really the southwest corridor of Arkansas,” he said.
Houston said CHI St. Vincent’s mission statement encompasses upholding the healing ministry of the church and emphasizing human dignity, and its job, ultimately, is to make sure it leaves a community better than it found one, and healthier.
Emphasizing the hospital’s core values, Houston said it was important for employees, as they enter the building, to remember why they put on their hospital badges and uniforms, because being part of a community like Hot Springs and a nonprofit is about having the reverence, integrity, compassion and excellence they strive for each day.
“I think all of you in business can relate to many of our core strategies because it doesn’t do you any good to have these great things on paper if you don’t have outstanding and dedicated people doing the work. We’re very thankful we have them here in Hot Springs.
“I often tell co- workers I want them to love what they do, wake up and put on their badge and look in the mirror and say they really love being … and fill in the blank. That’s a calling, a vocation, and many can answer in the affirmative that we love what we do,” Houston said.
“And, second, I want them to love doing it at CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs. We have a lot of choices in this market, especially in health care. If you are a trained, skilled health care worker, you can go just about anywhere and get a job today, especially nurses, so I want them to love doing it here. I ask myself every day if I love what I do, and the answer is ‘ yes.’ I love being a hospital administrator and I love doing it at CHI St. Vincent,” he said.
Houston said Catholic Health Initiatives is the largest nonprofit hospital company in America, with about 110 hospitals across the country.
“We’re a broad, diverse organization spread across almost every time zone touching lots of lives and we’re thrilled to be part of that and benefiting Arkansas,” he said.
He said CHI was strong in Arkansas before Hot Springs joined its ranks, but it was mainly in central Arkansas. With the addition of Hot Springs, large parts of the state were connected to CHI and plans are to continue that growth.
“We’re a Catholic nonprofit and we are to give back, so we have charity clinics in many of our markets and we just opened one in Conway and now have a relationship with Conway Regional Hospital, which we’re proud of. We’re very proud to be a low- cost supplier and want to add value to the community, so it’s a big responsibility for us to not only deliver high quality, but at a fair price.
“Our very first goal is to give back to the community and we try to focus on that in everything we do. We are poised to be a leader,” he said.
“The last couple of years have been very difficult. The hospital wasn’t as full as it is today. Our business wasn’t thriving in the last three to five years, but we’re back and we’re back in a big way. Co- workers would tell you that we haven’t been this busy in a handful of years and we’re excited to have that kind of growth trajectory,” he said.