Emergency Department Update
If you’ve had a chance to see it, I hope you’re as pleased as I am with the way the newly-expanded Emergency Department looks from the outside. I think it completes the original hospital building in a very graceful and substantial way. As you can see from this photo, construction is going fast and, for the most part, smoothly, with the roof finished and the windows now in. Relatively mild winter weather has worked in our favor, at least until today’s Nor’easter! We’re still looking at a May/June completion date. On behalf of all of the patients that we serve in our Emergency Department, we thank the 118 individuals who donated and those who participated in our 2022 Cabin Fever Auction, Tee It Up for Health golf tournament, Hospital Fair Day, and Giving Tuesday; thanks to your generosity, we made our goal of $660,000 for this project!
Best Places To Work In Vermont
I am very pleased to announce that Grace Cottage Family Health & Hospital has been named one of the Best Places to Work in Vermont in 2023! This statewide survey and awards program was designed to identify, recognize, and honor the best places of employment in Vermont. This award recognizes our facility’s policies and practices, with a primary focus on employee satisfaction. Grace Cottage Family Health & Hospital would not be eligible for this award without our incredible group of loyal, dedicated, compassionate, and hard-working employees. There were 57 companies in Vermont named, but we are the only hospital to receive this esteemed title! I am proud and fortunate to work with all of our employees, and so appreciate everything they provide to our patients and our community.
The first part of the award qualification process consisted of evaluating each nominated company’s workplace policies, practices, and demographics. This part of the process was worth approximately 20% of the total evaluation. The second part consisted of an employee survey to measure the employee experience, approximately 80% of the total evaluation. The combined scores determined the top companies and the final ranking.
We will never know who made comments in the Grace Cottage survey, since the employee surveys were anonymous, but the following statements are indicative of the overall comments we received, so I’d like to share a few of them:
- We have a culture of kindness to both patients and to staff.
- Care of the patient is important to staff and the amount of time allotted to do that is honored.
- Voice is heard by administration; organization has great cooperation and respect between departments.
- It’s a family-oriented environment and our work is very valuable and valued by the community.
- The attitudes shared by co-workers and administration reflect optimism and collaboration. There is genuine kindness, compassion, and respect.
- The people are amazing. The organization encourages increased time spent with patients.
- There is a transparency with administration and staff. What you were told you can believe. There is a collegial environment which is wonderful.
To learn more about our achievement, here is the link to the article in VermontBiz:
https://vermontbiz.com/news/2023/february/13/57-businesses-named-best-places-work-vermont-2023?ct=t(ENEWS_2_13_2023)
Finally, thanks to all of the generous individuals and businesses that donated 154 items for our annual Cabin Fever Online Auction in February, we raised almost $30,000 for our Patient Care Fund.
Please stay safe in today’s storm. Keep an eye out for your neighbors, and stay off the roads, if possible, so that the snowplows can do their jobs. Be careful when shoveling, to avoid over-exertion. Winter’s going out like a lion, but we can take comfort in the fact that spring is not far off – on the calendar, at least!
Doug DiVello, President & CEO
Grace Cottage Family Health & Hospital
