Gibson Brings Passion to Patient Care at Redbud Community Hospital

When you talk to Linda Gibson, Redbud Community Hospital’s new senior vice president of operations, you notice the word “passion” creeping into the conversation. She tries hard to balance her personal and work life and has immense passion for both.

Her play passions: the San Francisco Giants, the 49ers, college sports, Pilates, reading, gourmet cooking, traveling to learn about cultures, and hanging out with good friends.

Her work passions: creating an excellent work environment for patients and staff, enhancing the quality of care, improving patient safety and boosting Redbud’s financial health.

“My goal is to make Redbud the best critical-access hospital in the country,” says Gibson unabashedly.

A registered nurse with an MBA and expertise in the latest information technology for improving healthcare delivery, she is already hard at work on four major projects to improve access and quality of care for Redbud: development of a hospitalist program, expansion and upgrading of the emergency department, remodeling the front of the hospital and implementing a swing bed program.

New Front Entrance

When winter rains end, work will begin to enhance and beautify the hospital front entrance, creating closer parking, adding new landscaping and grading the steep slope -- some call it ‘cardiac hill’ --- leading to the hospital front door. Gibson says it will make a huge difference to Redbud’s appearance and accessibility.

Hospitalist Program

By the second quarter of this year, Redbud will expand the medical staff with hospitalists, board certified internists specially trained to care for inpatients.

“Health care research shows that hospitalists can improve many aspects of hospitalization including patient outcomes, patient satisfaction, and shorter lengths of stay,” explained Gibson. “The hospitalist also works closely with the patient’s primary physician to insure continuity of care. Hospitalist programs are rapidly becoming the standard of hospital care for the nation.”

Emergency Room Expansion

Over the next 16 months, the emergency department will be remodeled and enlarged by 2,800 square feet with 12 private, state-of-the-art emergency room monitoring beds. Physical access will also be improved with a remodeled ER entrance. The project completion is expected early in 2009.

Gibson and Emergency Department Manager John Severs also are working closely with Redbud nurses, physicians and support staff to decrease wait times for diagnosis and treatment. “We’ve already made significant gains with more on the way,” Gibson promised.

Swing Bed Program

After getting expected State of California approval sometime in the first half of this year under the rural health and critical access program rules, Redbud will be able to “swing” or designate unused medical-surgical beds as skilled nursing beds.

Rather than discharging a person and having to hand-off their care to a new facility for rehabilitation after surgery, Redbud will be able to keep the patient and, says Gibson, “deliver the best care possible by allowing the same physician and nurse team to care for them through convalescence.”

The St. Helena Promise

The four major programs Gibson has launched are part of St. Helena Hospital’s commitment to provide residents of Lake County with the best care possible, according to JoAline Olson, president and CEO.

“We were so pleased that someone with Linda Gibson’s experience (the last five years as St. Helena Hospital’s operations chief) and talent was eager to lead the Redbud renewal.”

Acknowledging Gibson’s energy and enthusiasm for life, Olson added: “We share Linda’s passion for improving patient care for everyone served by Redbud.”