McCurtain Memorial Hospital: A look inside

An Inside Look at Your Hospital

There is one thing I've learned during my career in healthcare:

Healthcare is incredibly complicated.

In fact, it is so complex that there are many days when even those of us who lead hospitals are still learning. Healthcare is constantly changing. New regulations. New technology. New reimbursement rules. New challenges. If it can be difficult for those of us who work in it every day, I certainly don't expect our community to fully understand how a modern hospital operates.

And that's okay.

The truth is, most people only see a hospital during one of life's most important moments. They come through our doors when they need us, receive care, and return home. What they don't often see is everything that happens behind the scenes to make that care possible.

That's about to change.

Over the next several months, McCurtain Memorial Hospital is opening its doors to you like never before. We are the authors of our story and we do not need translators, speculators or instigators.

Not literally—but through unprecedented access into the day-to-day operations of your hospital, you will get an inside look at all things McCurtain Memorial Hospital.

Several times each week, we'll publish new content designed to educate, inform, and answer your questions. Through articles, blogs, videos, behind-the-scenes tours, and sit-down conversations with administrators, physicians, nurses, laboratory professionals, radiology staff, maintenance personnel, environmental services, registration, finance, information technology, dietary services, and so many others, you'll experience what few communities have ever had the opportunity to see.

We'll explore topics such as:

• How hospitals are funded—and why healthcare finances are so complex.

• What happens from the moment you walk through our doors until your bill is generated.

• How laboratory testing, imaging, pharmacy, surgery, emergency services, rehabilitation, and countless other departments work together.

• The infrastructure required to keep a hospital operating twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

• The people behind the scenes whose work most patients never see but depend upon every single day.

• Why certain decisions are made and how healthcare regulations affect your local hospital.

Most importantly, we want this to be a conversation.

Throughout this series, you'll have opportunities to submit questions directly to us. We will answer as many as we can honestly, openly, and transparently.

There are, of course, limits.

We will never discuss patient information, employee personnel matters, pending legal issues, or any information protected by law. Likewise, this series is intended to educate—not to serve as a platform for personal attacks against our employees or our hospital.

We simply ask that everyone participate respectfully.

McCurtain Memorial Hospital belongs to this community. Whether you've visited us once or a hundred times, we believe you deserve to understand how your hospital works, where healthcare dollars go, what challenges rural hospitals face, and—most importantly—the extraordinary people who dedicate their lives to serving our friends, families, and neighbors.

Transparency builds trust.

Knowledge builds understanding.

Understanding strengthens communities.

I hope you'll join me over the coming months as we take you behind the scenes and provide an inside look at McCurtain Memorial Hospital unlike anything our community has experienced before.

This is your hospital.

Welcome inside.

Brian A. Whitfield, MBA, MS, MHA

President & Chief Executive Officer

McCurtain Memorial Hospital