Dear Friends of Shriners Hospital for Children – Spokane,

From where I sit today as I write this article I am so thankful I work in such an organization as Shriners Hospitals for Children.  Given the stark economic news and the projections that the worst is not over, coupled with what has already happened in the stock market you might think our hospital system is on the ropes.  Nothing could be further from the truth!

I have said many times that our people are our greatest asset.  We must continue to retain the talented people we already have on staff and recruit equally as talented staff for the few vacancies that arise each year.  I can tell you that we have never had a better team of people here at SHC-Spokane.  From the Directors and Department Managers all the way down, we are loaded with an all star team of folks that are performing in a superb fashion. 

Our leadership recognized the importance of retaining this talent and directed we provide a 4.5% pay raise to every individual on our team in 2009.  I must tell you this simply isn’t done across corporate America.  We have all heard that over 500,000 jobs were lost in the last month alone in the U.S.A.  I am proud to report to you that not one job was lost at our hospital in the last year.  We did remove 3.1 vacant positions from our manpower books and the associated salaries, but none of these positions were occupied.  Here in Spokane we run a lean organization and therefore we did not have to cut any staff to meet our corporate funding mandates. 

I cannot tell you how happy and thankful our employees are to hear that not only do they get to keep their jobs but they will get a meaningful pay raise in January 2009.  Keeping faith with our employees right now could not be more critical.  We do have the best talent on our staff.  This means they could all get work somewhere else rather quickly, probably making more money.  But as you all know, our staff do not work here just for a salary.  They work here because they love this hospital and its mission.  During the good and bad years our employees have stuck with us and it is our turn to demonstrate our loyalty now and in the future.

I wish you all could have been at our holiday party Saturday evening.  Over 200 people were in attendance.  We celebrated our Employee and Volunteer of the Year for 2008.  We recognized staff members that have served the hospital from 5 to 25 years.  We socialized and celebrated as a family, thankful for what we have been given and optimistic in our future as a hospital and a hospital system.  We know we will face challenges in 2009 and beyond, but we do not despair, we readily accept the challenge knowing we have the best team of people anywhere to help us deliver the mission.

As always, thank you for all your support.  It is my honor to be the Administrator of “your” hospital.  You should be justifiably proud of this hospital and the people who work here.  We wish you and yours the best of holiday seasons and the brightest of new years.