Archived Publications eBook: Confidence in the Development of your Futur | Page 15

“We decided long ago that we were here to support
the people in our hospitals,” says John Bumpus,
executive vice president and chief administrative
officer, who joined LifePoint in 2005. To drive home
this important point, Bumpus and Chairman and
CEO Bill Carpenter make it their mission to meet
with every new employee who comes to work at
the HSC and explain the philosophy behind the
name change. “As we get bigger, it is things like that
name change that are constant reminders of why we
exist,” says Bumpus, who laughs and adds that
anyone who slips up and uses the word “corporate”
is required to pay $1 into the company’s United
Way Campaign.
It is this simple, yet powerful, message that sets a
strong cultural foundation from which LifePoint—
which posted a net income of $76.2 million for the
first two quarters of 2014—is making unprecedented
strides in expanding its geographical reach, offering
new services, forging new partnerships and growing
its quality initiatives. The name also signals to
employees that healthcare is local. “The heart of the
organization is in our local communities,” says
Bumpus. While he acknowledges that the employees
at the HSC have an important role to play, he wants
to be clear that it is the frontline staff at the hospitals,
who work with patients every day, who truly advance
the company’s mission—Making Communities
Healthier—and make LifePoint successful. “As new
people come into the organization and work at the
HSC, we talk about the fact that while we might
have nurses and doctors in this building, none are
touching patients, and we would not be successful if
we focused on ourselves.”
LifePoint Corporate Profile
Public company - NASDAQ: LPNT
Formed in 1999
60+ hospital campuses in 21 states
38,500+ employees
4,150 physicians relationships
MAKING TALENT MANAGEMENT
A STRATEGIC IMPERATIVE
Formed in 1999, publicly traded LifePoint Hospitals
(NASDAQ: LPNT), which owns community hospitals
in non-urban markets, has been on a strong growth
trajectory, having acquired a three-hospital health
system in Pennsylvania and five hospitals in North
Carolina in 2014 alone through its joint venture
organization, Duke LifePoint Healthcare, with Duke
University Health System. The partnership was
formed in 2011 to leverage Duke’s clinical and quality
expertise and LifePoint’s operational and financial
strength, and offer an innovative partnership solution
to community hospitals in North Carolina and the
surrounding region, and tertiary hospitals nationally.
While it is an exciting time of change at LifePoint, it is
also a challenging operating environment in multiple
areas, including developing talent, meeting growing
regulatory requirements, and holding down costs, to
name a few. “One of the things I think about a lot is a
shortage of leaders, and we feel it even more acutely
as we have grown and acquired hospitals in larger
markets,” says Bumpus, noting that in any given month,
there are 500 to 1,000 open CEO positions for the
5,800 U.S. hospitals. “You start to see the same
candidates over and over again who are just moving
through the system, and if you want someone with for-
profit experience, you’ve narrowed the pool further.”
Vice President of Human Resources and Talent
Management Pam Belcher agrees and adds that
finding leaders who have a deep knowledge of
compliance issues is also a challenge. “We consciously
made a decision that we are going to be a highly
compliant organization within the industry. In order
to do that, you need specific leaders who understand
that and have that as one of their fundamental
values,” she says.
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