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Trinity Hospice - Agency

Company: Trinity Hospice
Company Description: Trinity Hospice, the nation’s 7th largest hospice provider, offers palliative care/support to terminally ill patients and their families. Trinity focuses on meeting the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of terminally ill patients and their loved ones. Trinity has rapidly expanded through internal growth and acquisition and now operates from 24 locations across 9 states.
Nomination Category: Company, Office & Product Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Best Agency, Brokerage, or Satellite Office or Facility

Nomination Title: Trinity Hospice-Biloxi: A Mammoth Challenge: Tackling the Unimaginable

   1. Tell the story about what this nominated office, plant, or agency achieved in the past year (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

Linda Rogers was fulfilling a tall order.  When she joined Trinity Hospice in May 2005 as program administrator, the Biloxi branch was experiencing turnover and financial losses.  She restructured the branch with her carefully devised plan.

But as Rogers settled into her new role, she was blindsided by an unforeseeable event that would change her course (and life) -- Hurricane Katrina completely derailed her efforts.  This devastation knocked out four Trinity branches, sending Rogers and her team into a frenzy for survival.

Minute by minute, the Trinity-Biloxi team, under Rogers’ tutelage, pulled together.  With Rogers at the helm, they acted fast and furiously, performing unimaginable feats over a few days that one would never expect to encounter in an entire lifetime. In addition to teaming up with the National Guard and local fire departments to help those in need, she also spearheaded efforts to keep food and medical supplies coming into the area including assisting FEMA.  The “supply line” included getting gasoline transported in to meet the needs of
patients in hurricane-stricken areas.  Efforts included:

·Begging for gas at Ocean Springs City Hall for nurses’ cars so staff could visit patients.  Gas was also needed to replenish generators for oxygen patients.  City Hall was only giving gas to emergency personnel.  But, the local Fire Chief heard Rogers’ plea and arranged for his friends from Alabama to deliver gas, food and medical supplies daily for Trinity’s patients.  Rogers personally picked up and dropped off gas cans daily.  Gas cans had to be vented; she loaded them in her car (16-20), took them to her house, unloaded them; put them back into her van each morning and brought them to work where they were dispersed.  They also carpooled or rode bicycles see patients, in the absence of gas.
·Examining patients suffering from heat in a personal care home, even though they weren’t Trinity’s.
·Providing bereavement support to staff and patients.
·Sleeping on the floor in the Biloxi branch; still assessed patients everyday despite the fact some employees were now homeless. 
·Performing CPR on an ailing member of the community. 
·Staying in a personal care home 24/7 before/after storm to care for patients.
·Vaccinating staff with Tetanus and Hepatitis A, which was scarce after the storm.  Offered community health care providers rest.
·Searching local shelters for patients who were evacuated.

Despite the aftermath of Katrina and subsequent financial hardship, the Biloxi team recovered and emerged stronger.  In 2005, they still managed to: 

·Grow patient census by 26 percent
·Increase revenue by 37 percent; EBITDA by 70 percent.
·Improve patient, employee and vendor satisfaction as evidenced by survey scores.  Overall customer satisfaction surveys rose to 98.7 percent – the bets in the company.
·Increase referrals from existing sources and added new ones despite loss of local businesses, facilities and physicians.
·Raise compliance audit score from 68 to >90 percent
·Reduce turnover.
·Improve education by fostering participation in outside clinical-related
activities.

   2. List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:

http://www.trinityhospice.com/news/docs/nurse%20winner%208-05%20revised.pdf

   3. Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader of this nominated office, plant or agency:

Linda K. Rogers serves as program administrator for Trinity, overseeing operations of the company’s three Mississippi branches.  She was recruited to turn around the poor-performing area.  Within just three months under Trinity’s employ, Rogers was faced with meeting the challenges of Hurricane Katrina in a region scarred by devastation.  Despite this, she helped Trinity’s Gulf Coast-area operations achieve extraordinary growth.

Before joining Trinity, Rogers was a hospice/palliative care nurse, consultant and educator for the Gulf Coast Veteran’s Healthcare System.

She is a Board-certified hospice and palliative care nurse (CHPN), and earned a bachelor of science degree in nursing from the University of Southern Mississippi.