Castle Country Radio had the chance to sit down and talk with Castleview Hospital CEO Greg Cook. This conversation covered topics such as what he attributes the hospital’s success to, the importance of rural health care, how he’s seen the hospital improve since becoming CEO and what the future may hold for Castleview.
Castleview has recently been named a top 100 rural and community hospital as well as earned an “A” grade from the Leapfrog Group, a major advocate for transparency in health care who gives out letter grades for the quality of care. “100% of our success is due to the people. In my opinion, we have the best people, they are very intelligent and they’re very caring which is important in a hospital.” Cook explained,” We also have a robust culture of safety and a robust quality program that really drives us to look at the data and what we do well.”
The next topic was the importance of rural health care to which Cook responded,” Every rural community has its health care challenges and I think a hospital in a rural community is extremely important.” Cook continued by saying,” We also contribute a significant amount to salary and wages. I think in 2023 our salaries exceeded $30 million. We have about 400 employees, and if you think about it, that’s like $30 million going back to the community and local businesses.”
The next thing we discussed was the hospital being named a top 20 rural and community hospital and what it meant to Castleview,” For five out of the last six years we’ve been named which is a significant accomplishment … there are roughly 2,000 plus rural and community hospitals and to be in the top 20 puts us in the top 1% which is a significant accomplishment.”
We then took the time to look back and reflect on what Cook has seen change and improve during his time as Castleview Hospital CEO, which started in 2018.” Since 2018 we have been able to move our leapfrog score from a “C” to an “A.” To put that in perspective, moving one letter grade from a “C” to a “B” is a significant accomplishment, and we moved from a “C” to an “A” Cook also explained that in that same time frame they had received there level four trauma designation,” When you come in for care if you’ve had a trauma, and you’ve had a car accident or fallen, there’s a team waiting for you as you come through the door.”
Moving along, Cook discussed some of the initiatives the hospital undertakes to help them achieve quality patient care,” A major component of our quality program is our culture of safety. And when I say a culture of safety I don’t necessarily mean patient safety, but a major component is how our people deal with issues.” Cook went on to explain,” If someone makes a mistake, instead of hiding that mistake and shoving it under the rug, we have employees who raise their hand and say “Hey, I made a mistake. “ … and instead of tattling on each other our employees say “Hey I did this” which speaks to our culture of safety.”
To close our interview, we asked Cook what the future could hold for the hospital. “We’re always looking for opportunities to help the community … One area we’re looking at and we think we’ll be able to do it is a behavioral health unit. It’s very difficult when a patient comes to the hospital with behavioral health needs because it’s tough to find a place for them to go, there just are not enough beds in the state … and we think that in 2025 we can get that up and running, so that’s something to look forward to.”