Hospital promotes Toft to be new CEO
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By KEN GARNER
MOUNT AYR, Iowa — Ringgold County Hospital didn’t have to look very far for its new Chief Executive Officer as the Board of Directors recently announced that Trevor Toft will become the permanent leader of the hospital. Toft, who had been the acting CEO when he was hired over the summer as Chief Financial Officer, now has the interim tag taken from his title.
“I’m appreciative to the board and the staff that have been supportive through the whole process,” Toft said. “Definitely appreciate the opportunity.
“We have a great staff. We’ve got great providers, great support staff to those providers. The whole facility functions well. Everybody knows their role and where they, where they can support the most and they all step in even where they’re not to be to, to help support those roles as well. And that’s excellent to see coming in. You don’t get that in a lot of places.”
When Toft accepted his original position as CFO and to serve in an interim capacity leading the hospital there were multiple changes already in play as Ringgold County Hospital was ending its relationship with the MercyOne system.
The hospital had been without an official CEO since it split from MercyOne in early August, but that does mean it was rudderless.
The new CEO said that it was not his intention upon coming on board at the hospital to become its new leader, but as RCH became an independent hospital excitement started to build steam throughout the hospital community.
“I’m excited to come into a facility that’s, that’s fully independent to govern itself and make its own decisions as a whole,” he said. “That seems to be the consensus amongst staff and other leadership here at the facility, as well as the board. I’m just excited to have a hold of those reins to help guide that along and make sure we can make the facility as great as we can.”
During his interim tenure Toft oversaw, along with the RCH leadership group, the hospital’s search for an affiliation. That search led the Board of Directors to unanimously approve a Tier 1 affiliation with the University of Iowa Healthcare system.
Now with that challenge in the rearview, Toft said there still many challenges on the horizon.
“We’ve got a great staff that’s here, but we also have to find some additional staff to fill some of those open roles and that’ll be probably the biggest and foremost challenge in the forefront,” he said. “Along with making sure that we can continue to provide service here Ringgold County in a quality and effective manner as they have. Staffing is going to be a big focus for that.
“Another challenge is just rural healthcare in it of itself. You want to be able to help everybody as best you can, but we’ll have to make those partnerships and those programs as beneficial and efficient for the facility and the patients as possible and focus on what’s important — and that’s patient care and keeping them as close to home as we can in that process.
It’s not just meeting challenges that Toft has on his plate as he also has set goals for the hospital.
One of those goals he began embarking on when he first step foot in the hospital over the summer. He spent many of those early days not just doing his jobs but walking through the facility and getting to know a good the staff. Now he wants to continue that not from the CFO perspective but from the one of sitting in the big chair, as well as getting out and meeting people in the community and “making those connections.”
It’s those “connections” he is making that will help him meet goals and challenges ahead.
“Making sure that we understand what other opportunities are out there for us to be a part of in the short run of things and use that to help us in the long run,” Toft said. In the medium term is is getting a good solid footing under ourselves with the leadership here at the facility and putting that together in a strategic way to start building that long term goal. That long term goal, as it sits currently, is to, to really make Ringgold County more of a healthcare home for the region. We want to make sure that we’ve got the services that keeps people close to home as often as they can. At the same time, provide what we can and partner with other quality facilities to provide those services if we’re not able to.”
Part of that goal is continuing along with a somewhat regional hospital industry push to sustain the more independent model that Ringgold County recently embarked upon. Across the region, hospitals in Clarinda and Wayne County to name a few are forging ahead in the independent model instead of the enterprise model where the individual hospital has an overlord.
“The enterprise facilities have kind of left a lot of facilities wanting,” Toft said. “When they first started, they were great. There was a plethora of specialty providers and extra services that were available through the management facilities and the resources that were out there. Towards the end, it really became more about what does the enterprise want to see drug to them from the outlying clinics and hospitals, and that’s not what we need in the area. We need to be able to provide those services here if we can and really grow that from a holistic and neutral perspective of our facility, and not feel like we have to send somebody to a certain provider just because of their affiliation.”
According to Toft, it has yet to be determined whether the board will hire another CFO or if he will hold both roles simultaneously. It is a situation that Toft said is fluid and over the next several weeks he will conduct some research into what similar size organizations have in place and tentatively report on that during the next board meeting.
“We’ve looked at it from a few different perspectives,” he said. “… And see if there’s any modern alternatives to that process that maybe we haven’t thought of in that regard.”
Since his arrival over the summer, Toft said that he has heard rumors that have been going through the community that the hospital was in financial trouble.
The new CEO wants to alleviate community’s concerns and dispel the rumors.
“We are financially stable,” Toft adamantly said. “I would just like to reiterate a couple things. We’re not going broke number one.”
According to Toft, the debt that Ringgold County Hospital has is from building a new facility, and those debts at every facility usually carry for 30 years and that is where the hospital currently sits at.
“We’re halfway through those debts from when the hospital is new,” he said. “We’ve got the cash flow and the ability to pay those debts so there’s no concern there. We’re gonna be a growing facility here in the county and be able to support their needs and hopefully grow the ability to support those needs for now into the future.
“What that looks like a 100 years from now, I don’t know. What that looks like 10 years from now is still a strong Ringgold County Hospital here to support the county, the community, the next generation of healthcare students, the next generation of healthcare professionals. And we’re excited to be a part of that process and help grow that from a Ringgold County perspective, and not some other enterprises perspective. We’re fine, we’re solid, and we’re hoping to use what we do have to continue the history and the experience that everybody’s had here in a positive way and enlighten that next generation that we’re going to need in healthcare 10-15 years from now to make those long term decisions.”
