Gifford Medical Center

The new chairman of the board of Gifford Medical Center, Randy Garner of Randolph, doesn't exactly follow the pattern of your normal dressed-up, toned-down executive. Garner had Gifford's annual meeting in stitches Saturday night with a hilarious re-creation of "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood," starring himself as Mr. Rogers with a host of "neighborhood" guests, all under the penetrating gaze of the medical center's bespectacled founder, "Doc" Gifford. (Provided / Jack Rowell)

Celebrates Busy Year

At Annual Meeting

Gifford Medical Center let its hair down Saturday night at the 101st annual Corporators' Meeting at Chandler Music Hall, replacing a traditional speaker with the belly-busting humor of Randolph’s own Randy Garner.

Garner, who moments before had been elected Gifford's new Board of Trustees chairman, had the crowd of more than 100 laughing from the moment he stepped on stage.

Mimicking a "Doc Gifford" version of "Mister Rogers," he sang "It’s a beautiful day in this neighborhood … Won’t you be my corporator?" Then he smiled his best Fred Rogers smile and donned a lab coat and surgical shoe covers in place of the TV icon’s telltale sweater and sneakers.

Welcoming Gifford chef Ed Striebe and long-time physician Dr. Milton Fowler into his on-stage "living room," Garner joked about everything, including the hospital’s coveted cuisine. Patients, quipped Garner, are scheduling surgery around the kitchen’s menu.

The comedy routine led into a discussion of the night’s "medical home" theme and the unveiling of a new video about Gifford. The video featured some of Gifford’s doctors, nurses, staff and volunteers describing the birth to end-of-life care that Gifford offers.

Impressive Year

Gifford President Joseph Woodin in his address, said that Gifford experienced significant growth in 2006, including the addition of new staff, a 40-slice CT scanner, filmless radiology (known as PACS), a hospitalist program and a 10-bed nursing home addition.

The hospitalist program provides physicians specifically to care for patients while they are in the hospital. It has already grown to three inpatient care providers and is expected to increase to four this year.

"It has changed significantly how Gifford provides inpatient care," Woodin said of the program initiated last May.

The PACS system allows sharing of radiology results instantly with several providers and puts the hospital at a new level of technology, he said.

"It’s really quite amazing that little Gifford has a full PACS system in place," he said.

Financial Stability

The hospital also celebrated another year of modest financial success, recording a surplus of 2.8% of income over expenses. Woodin, showing a graph, also noted Gifford's striking financial stability over the years as compared to other Vermont hospitals. That, he noted, allows Gifford to ask for relatively low rate increases, maintain its operating margin, and avoid the layoffs that plagued other hospitals in 2006.

"We are by far the most stable (health-care) organization in the state," Woodin said. "Usually our rate requests are lower than the average, but yet we do quite well."

Gifford's "corporators" are several hundred community members who are actually the final authority for the corporation and meet once a year to vote on new board members and other matters. Held at Chandler for the last several years, Gifford’s annual meeting includes food by Gifford’s chefs, music by the Hartt Hollow Band, the distribution of the annual report for the year past, as well as the business meeting for Gifford corporators.

"Thank you everyone for making the effort to come out," outgoing board Chair Judith Irving of Brookfield told Saturday’s crowd, following a Friday night snowstorm.

Board Members Elected

Corporators re-elected Susan Sytsma of Randolph Center and Karen Gillespie Korrow of Northfield as trustees. Elected to the board were Paul Kendall of Braintree, who previously served as a trustee; Ty Handy of Randolph Center; Linda Chugkowski of Northfield; and Gus Meyer of Randolph, who had been appointed by the board to fill a term. They replaced Lincoln Clark of Bethel, Jim Kennedy of Randolph and Dr. Rebecca Foulk of South Royalton, whose terms expired after a maximum nine years on the board.

A slate of new corporators, primarily new medical staff and their spouses, were also elected.

Awards Made

Gifford licensed practical nurse Tammy Ladd received the $1,000 Dr. Richard J. Barrett Health Professions Scholarship, Dr. Kevin McNamara announced. Ladd is pursuing her registered nurse degree at Vermont Technical College.

The Chelsea Family Center received the $1,000 Philip D. Levesque Community Award, Dr. Ken Borie announced. The family center will use the money to start "Family Time," an initiative to turn TV time into active family time through the purchase of interactive games and toys to be used at weekly gatherings by families living at Hillside homes in Chelsea.

"What a night," said Gifford Director of Development and Marketing Ashley Lincoln, following the annual meeting.

"Randy Garner was hilarious, the food by our outstanding chefs was delicious, and the movie we have created about Gifford really shows the hospital’s place as a medical provider and health-care leader not just in this community, but in the state and even in the nation."

Lincoln offered a special thanks to Randolph Union High School and Sharon Academy students who volunteered at the event and also to Pepsi, ClearSource, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters and Vermont Butter and Cheese, which donated products.