Name: Constance A. Howes
Position: President and Chief Executive Officer of Women & Infants Hospital (as of Oct. 2)
Background: Served as vice president and general counsel for both Women & Infants Hospital and for Care New England Health System, which includes Women & Infants, Kent and Butler hospitals. Prior to joining Women & Infants, Howes was an attorney with Tillinghast, Collins & Graham for 17 years, where she primarily practiced business law. She serves on the board of directors of the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce and is president of the Sexual Assault & Trauma Resource Center of Rhode Island.
Education: Graduated from Kenyon College and received her law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law.
Age: 49
Residence: Providence
Women & Infants Hospital, part of the Care New England health system, is a specialty hospital for women and newborns. The primary teaching affiliate of Brown Medical School for obstetrics, gynecology and newborn pediatrics, Women & Infants is the ninth largest obstetrical service in the country with more than 9,000 deliveries per year. Women & Infants was named one of the best hospitals in gynecology in the 2000 and 2001 editions of America’s Best Hospitals in U.S. News & World Report.
PBN: Earlier this month you replaced Thomas G. Parris, who has run things here for almost 30 years. How do plan to approach your new position, given the shoes you have to fill?
HOWES: Well they are big shoes to fill. We have had 30 years of excellent leadership at this hospital. He has taken it from a lying-in hospital – literally the Providence Lying-In Hospital when he started – to what is now a regional perinatal center, affiliated with the Brown Medical School. This year we’ll have over 9,300 births take place here. We have an extremely sophisticated neonatal intensive care unit. We have a broad range of women’s services, including breast-cancer care, urogynecology and reproductive endocrinology. But more important than that, (Parris) has created what I consider to be a culture of excellence here. And that will serve me very well going into the future. I see us building on the past.
What goals to you have for your first year?
Last December we entered into a five-year contract with District 1199 (of the New England Health Care Employees Union). We’ve had some rocky relationships from time to time with that union. But this agreement was historic in that it was a five-year agreement, and it provides for a new relationship where we have some aligned incentives focused on how we care for our patients, keeping patients at the center of everything we do. So one of my goals for the coming year is to continue to build on that relationship.
What do you mean by aligned incentives?
We actually wrote into the contract a provision that would provide for monetary incentives payable to all employees at Women & Infants if we achieve a certain level of patient satisfaction on the nationwide Press Ganey survey. (Press Ganey compiles a national database of patient-satisfaction surveys and was hired by the state Department of Health to rate hospitals in Rhode Island). We’re striving to be in the top 10 percent of hospitals in the country in terms of patient satisfaction.
How would describe labor relations and morale at the hospital, given the past labor strife?
After our work stoppage of four years ago, we were at a time when we needed to implement some changes. And after that we had to rebuild the relationship, and I think we have tried to do that. We have worked on a series of initiatives utilizing training from the Disney Institute, which has been key in helping us focus on service excellence. And even when we have acrimonious labor relations, the people who care for the patients all have a common goal. They care about our patients and they have the desire to do what’s right. That’s always been there, no matter what the situation has been on the labor-relations side.
You are the first woman to lead Women & Infants in the hospital’s 115-year history?
Yes. In fact, it’s very interesting, that in the past 75 years, there have been only three leaders of this hospital: Harmon Jordan Sr., Harmon Jordan Jr. and Thomas G. Parris. So we’ve had a lot of stability.
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