Southeast Hospital was presented with the 2013 Outstanding Patient Experience award Tuesday night at the Show Me Center, site of the hospital's annual dinner to recognize organizations and individuals who have made significant contributions.

Curtis Munlin, senior director with Enterprise Solutions at CPM HealthGrades, the company that rates all 5,000 hospitals across the country based on Medicare data, presented the award. He praised Southeast for continuing to lead the way in satisfactory patient experience.

James Limbaugh, executive vice president of planning and business development at Southeast, said the dinner was an opportunity to review the hard work accomplished in the past that would lead the hospital to future success.

"It's an opportunity to look into the rearview mirror of the past and at the windshield of what's coming," he said.

The most important change the hospital experienced this past year was the acquisition of Missouri Southern Healthcare in Dexter, Mo., and Advanced Healthcare in Poplar Bluff, Mo., Limbaugh said. This expansion represented a significant change in the way Southeast provides patient care.

"Almost overnight we went from a single dimensional location to a true regional system of care," Limbaugh said. "Our footprint changed."

He also said the change was "necessary" to keep up with dramatically changing health-care needs. None of these changes, Limbaugh pointed out, would have been possible without strong leadership.

James Orlikoff, guest speaker at the dinner and president of Orlikoff & Associates, an international consulting firm that specializes in health-care governance and leadership, said the importance of leadership cannot be stressed enough in the field of health care.

"When health care is in a period of stability, like it was the past few years, it's more about management," Orlikoff said. "But periods of revolutionary change like we're experiencing now really require leaders that are looking beyond the horizon."

The struggle, Orlikoff said, is for leaders to help hospitals find a way to change with the times without "changing who they are." Those who lack strong leadership ultimately will not survive, he said.

He said hospitals are fighting a battle on four sides -- demographics, unsustainable health-care systems, deficit concerns and globalization. People are living longer and putting more of a strain on the system, he said, and resources are decreasing.

"Any of these problems alone would be difficult to manage and would bring about revolutionary change," Orlikoff said. "But to manage them all at the same time is unprecedented."

Limbaugh said there will be challenges and risks in the future, but Southeast will search for more opportunities to provide quality patient care.

"Our highest goal is to provide health care at the lowest cost, close to home."

Southeast also announced five recipients of the O.D. Niswonger Spirit of Southeast Award. Angie Tygett, Eric Robbins, Jean Bloodworth, Nancy Voelker and Jane Unterreiner were recognized for their dedicated service to the hospital and its patients.

srinehart@semissourian.com

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