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Today’s Date: January 15, 2010
Sanford replaces Griffith as St. Joseph’s Mercy Home Health Director
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Loretta Sanford, RN, a nine-year member of the St. Joseph’s Mercy Health System Home Health team, was named recently to replace Vickie Griffith, the department’s longtime director.
The retiring Griffith’s last day was December 31, 2009, shortly before Sanford was selected to run the department. Not surprisingly, Sanford, who earned her nursing degree at Paducah Community College (Paducah, Kentucky), assumed the Mercy Home Health Director duties with mixed emotions.
“I worked very closely with Vickie while she was the director,” Sanford said. “I considered her a mentor who was always very encouraging and led by example. I started out as a field nurse and worked my way up to Performance Improvement Coordinator and Office Manager by the time she retired. I have a passion for patient care and also look forward to the challenge of this new position.
“We have a very strong team of Mercy Home Health co-workers and I am honored and happy to now be leading them. We are very patient oriented, want to provide quality care and are always looking for ways to improve in that area.”
Recent evidence of that came when Sanford, born and raised in Marianna, Arkansas, and the rest of the Mercy Home Health team were for the second time in the last three years named to the HomeCare Elite list, a compilation of the most successful Medicare-certified home health care providers in the United States. The annual review identifies the top 25 percent of agencies throughout the nation, ranked by an analysis of performance measures in quality outcomes, quality improvement and financial performance.
“At the time of that announcement last fall, Loretta was in a Mercy Home Health leadership role as Performance Improvement Coordinator and manager of the department’s business office,” said St. Joseph’s Mercy Patient Care Services Vice President Michele Diedrich, RN, BSN, MA. “We were excited to be able to name someone of her qualifications as Director and know that she will maintain the level of leadership the department has grown accustomed to.”
The 45-year-old Sanford and her husband, Jerry, reside in Pearcy. They have two adult children, 27-year-old Kris (married to daughter-in-law Crystal Ellis Sanford) and 22-year-old Kasey (married to son-in-law Tanner Rowland) and two grandchildren, six-year-old Brianne and four-year-old Gracy.
“I believe my being named Mercy Home Health Director is due in large part to my parents, Bill and Ora Lee Lindsey,” Sanford said. “They have always been hard workers and instilled a work ethic in me for which I’ll never be able to thank them enough. Along the way, they also encouraged me, my brother and sister to be independent, set goals and to go after what we wanted in life. My husband, Jerry, has always been supportive in that way, too.
“Home health is essential to health care, especially in this day and age. We are in the business of helping to keep people as independent as possible for as long as possible. We want to keep them out of the inpatient setting and at home where they are most comfortable. In my mind, that is pretty admirable work.”
A member of the Sisters of Mercy Health System, St. Joseph’s is a not-for-profit Catholic healthcare organization. For more information on the three large-company Gold Awards and Ambassador Award St. Joseph’s Mercy has received at Arkansas Governor’s Work-Life Balance Awards ceremonies over the last four years, as well as services and employment opportunities presently being offered, please visit saintjosephs.com.
