by
Sean Ruck, Contributing Editor | October 23, 2020
From the October 2020 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
HCB News: What attracts staff to Regions?
RJ: What doesn’t attract staff to Regions? We’re a training site for multiple professions. We have medical students, midwifery students, nursing students, EMTs — we train a lot of people because we are a Level I trauma center for adults and pediatrics. We’re the only one on the East side in the Twin Cities. Being a Level I brings in a lot of training opportunities. Once people step in the door and do their training here, we’re able to recruit pretty easily. That’s because the culture of the organization is really relational, community-based and supportive of the community we serve. Another great reason is that — and I can talk specifically about our birthing center — our patient population is unique. Because we’re based in downtown St. Paul, 60 percent of the women who deliver with us are women of color. And 25 percent of them need an interpreter for their care. That’s a really special population that people are drawn to and want to work with.
HCB News: What attracts patients to the birth center?
RJ: I think a lot of similar things. The Twin Cities has great healthcare for women and children. There are many wonderful hospitals within the Twin Cities area. I think Regions is set apart and will be set apart even more once our new building opens. But it’s our staff who draw people and keep them coming back. I have the opportunity to round on patients and get feedback. Over and over I hear so many comments about the excellent care they’ve received from their nurses or providers and how people treated them personally with great care.
Now with a larger patient of color population, we do sometimes fall down like every other hospital. We see the same disparities in the Twin Cities that are apparent on the national level for women and babies of color. That’s something we take very seriously and we’ve done a lot of work around health equity to understand how to disrupt the disparities that we see between institutionalized racism and systematic structures that are set up to not support women of color.
We want all families to feel welcome and comfortable during their stay or visit. We have large family waiting spaces in each floor’s lobby, as well as a courtyard with outdoor tables and seating areas and an indoor children’s play lounge.
HCB News: How has the pandemic changed the day-to-day operations?
