It was November 4, 1996 when Steve Simonin began his duties as CEO of Clarion’s hospital. Community Memorial Hospital (the name at the time) had 130 employees with an annual income of $8 million. Today Iowa Specialty Hospital has 694 employees with an annual income of $200 million. Lots of changes have taken place in those 25 years with Simonin at the helm. While he recognizes that it takes a team to be successful, many of his health care providers, employees, and patients know that a good part can be attributed to Simonin’s vision and leadership.
“I came to Clarion from two small hospitals in South Dakota,” said Simonin. “The average CEO stays in a rural hospital setting for three and a half years. I thought I would stay for maybe three years.” But things changed for him when his mother was diagnosed with a terminal illness. He was now on the opposite side of the table. Not as a hospital administrator, but as a family needing medical care. He became what he termed a ‘patient’s advocate’.
Dr. Whitters, long-time local health care provider, said, “About that same time, many small rural hospitals were closing. Steve became a leader in the state of Iowa in 2000, working to make hospitals our size a ‘critical access hospital’ (CAH), helping us to receive more funding for the services we were providing.” Today 82 hospitals out of 112 in the state are now a CAH.
Early in his career locally, Simonin became involved with Quint Studer of the Studer group. “I liked what I saw of how to better serve our patients. I had my senior leadership team members attend meetings to do a better job with not only health care but learning how to do more in advocating for our patients.” Patient surveys were implemented. Whitters said some of the first results were not that good. “Twenty-five percent of our surgery responses and fifty percent of our patient surveys were positive,” he said.
It was at that time Simonin’s goal became ‘to be the best small hospital in the United States’. Community Memorial Hospital became Wright Medical Center. Returned surveys continued to improve and awards in various categories began to come in. Recognitions have continued.
Belmond and Clarion were ‘rivals’ for health care provision in our county. But in 2012, the two became partners. “We no longer were in competition,” said Simonin. “We needed to upgrade the Belmond facility. $18.2 million was invested by Belmond with another $11 million invested by Wright Medical Center to improve the surgical unit there. To reflect the change, Wright County Medical Center became Iowa Specialty Hospital.
Amy McDaniel, CEO of the Iowa Specialty Hospital Belmond campus, said, “It is incredible to have a hospital CEO stay in one location for 25 years, but to have a CEO that has Steve’s visions and drive is truly a gift.” She said that when Steve was presented with the challenge of working closely with the Belmond community, he embraced the opportunity to expand services and to make healthcare exceptional across Wright County. McDaniel has had the opportunity to work with Simonin in varying capacities for the past 21 years.
It has been full speed ahead since then. Iowa Specialty Hospital now has clinics in nine additional communities from Clear Lake, Garner, Hampton, Humboldt, Fort Dodge, Webster City, and West Des Moines. Whitters said, “We have become well-known across Iowa and across the nation as the most awarded CAH.”
Sometimes Simonin said, he has to remind both his boards in Clarion and Belmond, that neither are serving only Clarion or Belmond. “Those two communities happen to be where the hospitals are,” he said. “We are serving people from a lot broader area than just right here.” He said they are known for which services they have as specialties (i.e. obstetrics and orthopedics in Clarion; bariatrics and pain management in Belmond). And which they send to other facilities (i.e. heart and brain surgeries).
Simonin knows that while he may be the ‘leader’, their success is being part of a ‘team’. “We are fortunate to have so many good people who stay with us for a lengthy period of time,” he said. “We want employees to keep their priorities in check: family, church, community. Can their jobs compliment those values? Right people in the right slots. Bring us people with right lives.” Those things don’t happen just by accident. The teams work at it all the time. Doing fun things together at work. Lots of recognitions; either individuals or departments. Simonin enjoys hosting people at his home. All this adds to the team atmosphere.
“I want to say thank you to our employees,” Simonin said. “This is not a job. This is my life. It has to be more than just a job!”
