(Corrected, 12:30 p.m.)
WARWICK – Kent Hospital has launched a new employee recognition and rewards program, Kent ROARS, as the hospital makes a renewed effort to emphasize supporting its internal resources.
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“This is a time to invest in our employees, not cut back on them,” said Sandra L. Coletta, president and CEO at Kent Hospital. ROARS is short for “Recognizing Our Achievements, Rewarding Staff.”
“We want to establish the kind of culture you need to succeed in a difficult environment – and it will be difficult for a long time,” Coletta said. “We want to make sure that our team has the right tools.”
Kent Hospital is a part of the Care New England system. The new program was announced the same day the group said it had abandoned plans to merge with Lifespan Corp., which owns institutions including Rhode Island Hospital and The Miriam Hospital.
Kent ROARS creates ways for both patients and staff to recognize and reward hospital employees on a regular, ongoing basis. Employees who are recognized for their good work will receive “scratch tickets” that can be redeemed for a variety of benefits, from coffee to individual gift items.
Coletta said that she didn’t think that another option – holding a large gathering – served any real purpose. “I’m not a big fan of ‘let’s just have a big, giant picnic,’ ” she said. ”Events need to be tied to an outcome, tied to achieving quality. Anything we do needs to be tied to performance.”
The campaign’s mascot, a lion, came from a photo of a stately lion in the cafeteria, which Coletta first encountered in 2008 when she came to Kent. She was previously chief operating officer at The Miriam Hospital.
The lion seemed to be looking up, waiting for direction, for someone to tell it what to do, she said. Now Kent Hospital will be setting its own direction, she said.
“There are tremendous forces that are going to make [the health care] industry very challenging going forward,” Coleta said. “This is absolutely the wrong time to stick your head in the sand and hunker down. This is the time to make sure that you have everyone ready and engaged.”
Additional information is available at kenthospital.org.
An earlier version of this article misspelled Kent Hospital CEO Sandra L. Coletta’s last name.
