For the time being, Lynn Mergen, the new chief executive officer of Havasu Regional Medical Center, should have a lot of time to devote to his job.
Mergen comes to HRMC with 15 years of administrative experience in hospitals, most recently as CEO of Lakewood Ranch Medical Center in Bradenton. He earned a Master of Health Administration at the University of Missouri in 1993.
Mergen sat down with Today's News-Herald last week for a question-and-answer session. Here's some of what he had to say:
Today's News-Herald: How does your last hospital compare to Havasu Regional Medical Center?
Mergen: Size-wise, it's about the same. (Lakewood Ranch Medical Center) was a startup hospital, so this hospital has more services — open-heart surgery, radiation therapy, interventional cardiology. We didn't have all of that. We had more of what I would call the bread-and-butter services.
My hospital before that (Centennial Medial Center) was in Dallas, and that was full-service. We had everything that this hospital has.
TNH: What do you see as the greatest challenges for a hospital like this one?
Mergen: One of the things I want to focus on is improving the experience for the patient and improving the experience for the employees.
When you have employees who are really excited about being here and understand what's going on and where we're going, I think that permeates and I think the patients see that. There's just that positive energy.
With the patient experience, a lot of patients come (in) through the ER. We have relatively long waits at this point. We need to get that down — and we have. Over the last three months, with the new ED group, we've seen a pretty drastic decrease in the length of stay in the ER, which is great. But we need to continue to get that down even further.
You know, in the past there have been a lot of ownership changes — who owns the hospital — and some people may not have had as good an experience with the hospital.
And so I just want to try and get them to give us another chance, and I think they'll be pretty — actually very satisfied at how good a hospital this really is. The physicians are good. The employees are good. This is a good hospital.
TNH: Were some local residents' negative perceptions of the hospital something you were aware of when you came here?
Mergen: Yes. They were pretty forthright in telling me what to expect. And that's fine. There are always challenges at any hospital. Always. There are always challenges no matter where you go.
TNH: You've talked about the quality of the doctors and staff. What are the other real strengths you see at this hospital?
Mergen: You know, (the hospital's owner) LifePoint has put a lot of capital dollars into this facility. We've got a new CT (scanner) and we're putting in a new linear accelerator. This company is very aware of what the needs are of this hospital and they have been, in my opinion, very supportive
Now, this is a new company for me. I've worked for other groups before this, but from what I can see and what I've seen so far, they're very supportive and want to be supportive not only of the hospital but of the community.
TNH: We've heard complaints recently about a shortage of anesthesiologists at the hospital that's delaying patients' surgeries.
Mergen: I don't think we have a shortage of anesthesiologists. There're just some internal things we have to work out between the surgeons and the anesthesiologists but I don't see that as a concern going forward.
TNH: How about other staff? Are staffing levels where they should be?
Mergen: From what I've seen, yes.
TNH: You've talked about your immediate goals. What are some or your long-term goals?
Mergen: Looking at the community, I think we have an opportunity to really be an orthopedic center of excellence. We have some very very good (orthopedists) on staff, and given the makeup of our population ... We've got a fairly large population of 55 and up.
Well, when you have that large of (an older) demographic, people are going to fall. And those who are active are going to, you know, hurt their knees. I think there are some opportunities to make this a center of excellence that people from outlying areas will want to come to.
I also think this can be a referral center for the area hospitals — Parker, Kingman, Bullhead City — instead of going to Phoenix, going to Vegas, wherever it might be. I think over time we can bring the services here (so patients) can come right here, and it's much closer.
We've got two helicopters sitting on a pad at all times. It's pretty easy to go pick somebody up and bring them back.
TNH: What are your plans for letting the community get to know you?
Mergen: I got invited to a Rotary function the other day. I'm happy to go speak to any organization that asks. If they want me to come, I'll come and talk on whatever they want me to. I'm happy to go out and I want to get involved with different organizations, and I want to see my administrative team do the same thing.
We are the only hospital, and we're one of the larger employers. We need to get involved as much as we can in the community.
You may contact the reporter at dparker@havasunews.com.

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