5/17/07

Clarendon Health graduates its premier Ambassador class
By Cathy Gilbert

CLEVE DOWELL/Manning Times

The 2007 Class of Clarendon Health Ambassadors: Will Buyck, C.D. Rhodes, Chris Lee, Cathy Gilbert, Dee Brown, Tim Baxley, Kathryn Turbeville, Matt Evans, Mary Alice Ipock, Ronda Ritchie and Brian Corbett. Not pictured: Randy Bradshaw, Lamar Kennedy and Anthony Mack.

It was seven months of eye-opening discovery, fun and excitement. This reporter will be the first to admit that she is a bit biased in making this report.

Clarendon Health System held “graduation exercises” for the 14 members of the very first class of Clarendon Health Ambassadors last Thursday night. I was one of those.

It was definitely a bittersweet gathering, as the 14 of us have become better friends, smarter advocates and truly, Ambassadors for our local healthcare operation.

Ambassador Ronda Ritchie summed it up best … “It exceeded all my expectations.”

The program was the project of The Cypress Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Clarendon Health System. While the staff of Clarendon Memorial is busy doing the healing work, The Cypress Foundation is hard at work making sure that funds are available for special projects like the Generations unit and providing extra funding for things like the recent radiology department expansion. It can’t be an easy job.

The Foundation, after observing similar programs at other hospitals, wanted to develop a way to “school” community members and leaders to be spokespersons for our hospital. The Ambassador program was the answer.

We were truly given an insider’s look at every function of the entire system. We all expected to get to see the various departments within the confines of the hospital, but never did we expect to learn about all the different ancillary services that Clarendon Health System offers. But what we also got was an up-close-and-personal look at things like how the System’s finances are managed, what the organizational chart looks like, as well as hear from the heads of just about every department within the System.

CHS Chief Executive Officer Ed Frye admitted Thursday night that he had a fair amount of skepticism about the program.

“I know now that this program has far surpassed my expectations,” he said. “What I want to know from the Ambassador is, did it meet your expectations?”

His question was met with an enthusiastic round of applause from the Ambassadors.

Foundation director Scherrie Cogdill, who oversaw the program, said it had been a joy and delight to work with the Ambassadors.

“Of all the things I have worked on in my 10 years with Clarendon Memorial, I think this is the most fun I have had,” she said.

The program met once a month November through April, mostly at the very early hour of 7:30 a.m. After a light breakfast, it was down to work, hearing from a variety of speakers at each session, and often taking a tour of some part of the facility.

From learning how the hospital is prepared for a mass casualty or a terrorist attack, to discussing the state-of-the-art drugs delivery system used, to seeing an actual MRI, echocardiogram and stress test conducted (thanks, Randy, Matt and Brian), no stone was left unturned for the Ambassadors.

We were invited to ask the hard questions and were never deflected from answers, even when it was admitting that things aren’t always perfect or as well done as the management would like. For every challenge, there was an action plan in place for improvement and some of those were shared in confidence.

We were invited to Cypress After 5 events, to the annual Volunteer luncheon and three of us were even invited to the Cypress Foundation’s board retreat to speak about the Ambassador program.

In short, we were treated royally, gifted in some form or fashion (I have my own scrubs!) nearly every month, and given a barrier-less entree into the workings of an institution that will probably have some effect on each of our lives.

As an Ambassador, I am now able to speak with a modicum of authority about our healthcare system and most importantly, I can attempt to diffuse the negative and promote the positive.

At our very first session, Tim Baxley, a member of the Dept. of Natural Resources officer, said it most succinctly, and I will never forget this …

“It is so easy to talk about the negative, to hear it and repeat it. But there is a lot of positive to be talked about and repeated.”

Tim probably had no idea how true and profound that was and how much easier the positive is to talk about after the Ambassador program.

I am sure I speak for the entire group of 14 when I say “thank you” for what has definitely been a life-changing, mind-expanding and eye-opening experience. We hope we all live up to our titles as Ambassadors and make the Clarendon Health System proud.