Page Hospital Recognized For International Achievement

Congratulations to Banner Page Hospital

The staff at Banner Page Hospital should be walking on cloud 9 right now, and patting themselves on the back.

Last night at John C. Page Memorial Park, while braving the heat, the dedicated employees of Banner Page Hospital were in for a treat. Banner Page Hospital was there and invited the community to come out and help them celebrate a major milestone that everyone at Banner Page Hospital has worked hard toward: Bronze status designation from Planetree International.

Little did the employees in attendance know

that they were getting recognized by someone else too. CEO Brian Kellar, had an extra surprise up his sleeve: gubernatorial commendation from Governor Ducey.

The main reason this milestone is special and a cause for celebration, is because Planetree designation is difficult to attain. There are many steps a hospital must take in order to meet the strict guidelines for any tier of the Planetree format. Mr. Kellar informed me that for this designation, there were 50 criteria above and beyond the normal state, local, and Banner criteria and standards that were required to be met.

To give a better idea about the amount of information and documentation required, when speaking with Melisa Servanti, she let me know that when they (Banner Page Hospital) tried to electronically submit all the required documentation, it crashed two computers; they even looked at all the information and determined that if it were to be printed out, it would fill ten 5” binders. That’s a lot of documentation.

When speaking with Mr. Kellar, his eyes lit up like those of a proud parent when he spoke about the employees of Banner Page Hospital, the Planetree International designation, and Banner Page Hospital’s goals and mission. He also couldn’t contain his excitement about the recognition Banner Page Hospital was receiving from Governor Ducey. Who can blame him? From what Mr. Kellar tells me, Banner Page Hospital is the only hospital within Arizona, the fourth hospital in the nation, and sixth hospital in the world, to receive Planetree Bronze hospital designation. That is one heck of a feat, especially for our little town. We all need to be proud of the hard-working and truly dedicated employees of Banner Page Hospital who have worked to achieve this goal.

Mr. Kellar is beyond humbled when it comes to this designation, and to hear him explain it, you can get a better understanding of why. Mr. Kellar attributes this designation to the entire community. "It’s not the CEO of the hospital, or the Board of Directors who achieve Planetree International designation...It takes the EMS folks, Canyonlands Health Care, Encompass Health Care, Indian Health Services, Banner Corporate, [and] Flagstaff Medical; it takes an entire community to provide medical excellence.” This also includes former patients who wanted to be involved with the designation process. Mr. Kellar is right, it truly does take an entire community.

Mr. Kellar also attributes the start of the Planetree International designation process not only to everyone at Banner Page Hospital and the community, but to two specific Banner Page Hospital employees. “Melisa Serventi and Amy Snell were two RNs who took this all on their shoulders and said, ‘let’s go get it’. So, last year, we took four employees and attended the Planetree International conference in Chicago. This year we are going to the conference in Baltimore. We are getting the best practices not from the U.S., most of them are from [various] international [organizations].”

The principles that Mr. Kellar and the staff of Banner Page Hospital do not seem to be wavering. In fact, according to Mr. Kellar, “…in the lease agreement between the local district [hospital] board and Banner Health, both parties committed that they will maintain commitment toward the Planetree principles and jointly pursuing Banner Health Page Hospital’s Planetree mission. This is locally driven, but it is supported by Banner Health, one of the largest healthcare systems in the nation.”

While I was interviewing Mr. Kellar, he was informed that, as a surprise to honor Banner Page Hospital’s designation, and unbeknownst to Mr. Kellar or any of the attendees, Classic Air Medical wanted to land their helicopter at the event. Mr. Kellar’s response: “…Classic wants to bring their helicopter; that’s beyond my expectation. It’s great. We’ll take that up one side and down the other”.

Not only did Classic Air Medical arrive with flare, but others in attendance to help celebrate the designation, included staff, family of staff, community members, several of the hospital’s board members, and Todd S. Werner, Banner Health’s Arizona Regional President.

To continue their commitment to the Planetree format, earlier this month, Banner Page Hospital updated their mission. The reason for this was three-fold. First, Banner Page Hospital had achieved the goals of the previous mission; second Banner Page Hospital continues to strive and challenge themselves for improvement; and of course, third, the Planetree designation. The new mission is “Making healthcare easier, so life can be better.” Mr. Kellar explained the concept behind this new mission: “Billing needs to be easier; scheduling needs to be easier; computer systems need to be easier, [they] need to be easier to read. We have to make healthcare easier and simpler so that people’s lives can be better. That’s what we do.” Mr. Kellar is not just talking about making the process easier for the staff at Banner Page Hospital, but for all those that are, or will become, involved in the process.

Mr. Kellar and Mrs. Servanti are passionate about not only what they do, but the format Planetree International provides for the healthcare model. “A big part of Planetree is that we are intrinsically immersed in the fact that…to heal, [it] isn’t just a physical affliction. We want to help you heal…your spirt, your soul, your mind.” To give me an example of this, Mr. Kellar stated that any hospital, like Banner Page Hospital can have “a patio door with a garden” for their inpatient wing. However, what makes Banner Page Hospital stand out from the rest, is that Banner Page Hospital designs everything around their central core value. That core value, according to Mr. Kellar, is to be “customer obsessed…We will be obsessed with earning the trust of people before they’re our patients and take exceptional care of them when they are.”

What’s next for Banner Page Hospital? Why, gold of course. Planetree has three designation tiers: bronze, silver, and gold. Mr. Kellar informed me that if Mrs. Servanti had her way, they would already be completing the application for gold designation, but Mr. Kellar felt that the employees and the community of Banner Page Hospital needed to celebrate this milestone first. Banner Page Hospital is already taking the steps necessary to reach Planetree gold designation by 2019. However, Mr. Kellar let me know that we should not be surprised if it happens in 2018. If the level of commitment, dedication, passion and drive for the Planetree format espoused by both Mr. Kellar and Mrs. Servanti is an indication of what the rest of the Banner Page Hospital staff has for this format, there is no denying that gold designation by 2018 is attainable.