BOUNTIFUL -- Rand Kerr says he has done little, but together with the hard work of his employees at Lakeview Hospital, they have accomplished a lot.
Kerr has worked as CEO at the hospital for the past five years and was just recently named the Distinguished Hospital Executive of the Year.
The award recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to Utah's health care community.
During his time there, Kerr has been very influential in moving the hospital's culture in a positive direction, said Jill Vicory, director of community affairs for Utah Hospitals and Health Systems.
Under Kerr's leadership, the hospital's strong and consistent performance has allowed the facility to sustain continued capital improvements, pursue growth initiatives and manage uncompensated care.
But Kerr is humble about his success.
"Truthfully, I have done very little. Our Lakeview Hospital team, however, has done a tremendous amount of work," he said.
Kerr said the team has put a big focus on core values, asking employees whom they most respected among fellow workers.
"After a while, it became obvious that the list really distilled down into four categories, and we dubbed those categories as our core values," he said.
"We believed that this represented the best of us and, if we could all live these values, that we would be able to truly accomplish our potential."
The core values are:
* A commitment to caring,
* Aspiring for excellence,
* Being bassionate about life and work, and
* Inspiring each other by our example.
"Our next focus was on building a truly cohesive team that trusted each other enough to challenge each other. We knew if we could call each other out as well as support each other when needed that we could accomplish our strategic plans," Kerr said.
"This is one of the most incredible teams I have ever had the privilege of working with, and I learn from them every day."
There was nothing truly complex about the strategies, Kerr said.
"We believed that we needed to start with our employees. We knew that if we could reduce our turnover and build a culture where our employees felt valued that we would have a stable foundation where we could begin," he said.
"With a strong, stable workforce, we knew we could reduce variation in our clinical outcomes and deliver consistent care.
"From there, we knew that with consistent care processes and people that truly lived our core values, that we would be able to elevate our patient satisfaction and become the hospital of choice in our community."
Vicory said Kerr's core values have led to a significant improvement in workforce engagement. Through his lead-by-example style and the development of the core values, employee engagement scores for the hospital reached the top ranking within the Hospital Corporation of America system, surpassing each of the approximately 170 HCA hospitals throughout the world.
In addition, the hospital has made significant strides in the area of patient safety and quality.
Lakeview's orthopedic and joint replacement services were ranked No. 1 in Utah and among the Top 5 percent in the nation in the 2011 HealthGrades report.
It also earned a stroke bronze quality achievement award from the American Heart and American Stroke associations for successfully implementing a higher quality standard of care for patients experiencing stroke symptoms.
Born at St. Mark's Hospital, Kerr, 43, grew up on a farm in Iowa and returned to Utah to attend Brigham Young University. After earning a bachelor's degree in psychology, he went on to earn a master's degree in health administration from Tulane University in New Orleans.
Kerr and his wife, Holly, have four children.
"Our oldest two are twin boys, McKade and Braden. Next is our only daughter Megan, who is such a social butterfly that she decided to be born on her twin brothers' birthday just so she could crash the party," he said.
"Last, but definitely not least is our youngest son, Dawson, who is the family class clown and keeps us all in stitches."
Kerr plans to continue working hard at Lakeview Hospital, but continues to insist he isn't the only person behind its recent successes.
"It's people. The building is simply concrete and bricks. The hospital is reflected by its people. One thing that we adamantly believe is that every person at Lakeview is a caregiver because they are either providing direct hands-on care to patients or they are supporting those that provide direct hands-on care to patients," he said.
"As I said before, I have done little, we have done a lot."
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