From the desk of Becky Flood:

August 11 was the last Dog Day of summer, and I hope you have had an opportunity to enjoy your vacation or you are looking forward to taking some quality time off in the coming months. We were lucky enough to enjoy our Staff Appreciation Crab Feast on Thursday, August 9th. The patients and staff tore through 14 bushels of very large crabs along with a lot of burgers and hotdogs.  It was good to see everyone, and we really enjoyed a special visit from Eleanor Tydings, representing our former land owners, the Tydings Family. The weather was great, and I already received many heartfelt messages of appreciation.

I want to personally thank everyone who took the time to complete the Strategic Planning Survey.  We collected over 190 responses that included a lot of valuable and creative ideas and suggestions, and I am very excited about the high level of staff participation. In analyzing the responses thru the lens of a Word Cloud, the most frequently used key words included in the comments were Compassion, Respect, Dignity, Caring, Love, Healing, Service, Spirituality, Commitment, and Passion.  I think this speaks well for the level of dedication to our most critical and important mission.  The survey is still open and I once again encourage anyone who has not taken it to please access and complete the tool.  The link can be found at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/AshleyStratPlan.

Last month we announced the completion of a two-day strategic planning session with the Strategic Planning Group and an outside facilitator have created a newly defined set of Core Values for Ashley.  I believe that these new values capture the input and the values of our employees that we hold dear, and they capture our values in a clear and succinct way. As designed, they form the acronym “I-ACT”.

  • Integrity – I do the right thin
  • Accountability – I own i
  • Compassion – I am with yo
  • Total Commitment – I am all in!

We also drafted a new mission statement that reads: “We transform and save human lives by integrating the science of medicine, the art of therapy, and the compassion of spirituality”.  I am also soliciting your impression of this statement, so please be sure to share your comments here so they may be sent to the Strategic Planning Group.  We are planning to continue to refine the Strategic Planning Process by including the management Group in another 2-day session scheduled for the 23^rd^ and 24^th^ of August.

Last month’s Patient Satisfaction Survey showed some improvement on the key question “Recommending Ashley”.  However, we continue to work to improve several other areas at Ashley.

Speaking of summer vacations, last week we put out a vacation safety reminder that listed things you should, and things you may want to do differently when planning to be away from home.  Many thanks to our new IT Director, Andy Flood for providing those safety tips for our employees. Here are a few of the things to keep in mind:

Consideration should be given to the following security tips when traveling away from home:

  • Ask a trusted neighbor to keep on an eye on things around your home
  • Utilize timers on lights to make it appear someone is home at night
    • Keep-up with outside housekeeping. Examples, arrange for the lawn to be mowed and mail picked-up or stopped
    • Leave the blinds and curtains the way you normally have them, however, move valuables such as jewelry and computers out of site if they are visible from a window or door
  • Ensure everything is locked before you depart
    • Voicemail: Don’t announce you’re away from your home. Try keeping your message the same as always or vague in reference to your vacation.
  • Beware of email auto responses and social media
    • You may not want automatic email replies going outside your organization
    • Wait until you get home to post vacation pictures and stories on social media
    • Consider notifying the police if you’re traveling out of town on vacation for longer than a week

I think that’s all the major news for now. In closing I want to thank you for your continued support to Ashley and all that we do.

Peace, Becky