The Cookeville Regional Medical Center Board of Trustees saw improved scores on its 2025 employee engagement survey Thursday.
An estimated 1,577 responses received with an overall score 3.91 out of 5. In years past, CRMC had been stuck at a 3.7 score. But CEO Buffy Key said focusing on employees led to improved scores for the second year in a row.
“Our staff are the most important thing,” Key said. “And when I say staff, I mean physicians, our employees, and everybody related to that. Because the best way to take care of patients is to make sure we are taking care of our people that are taking care of the patients.”
Key resource concerns from the survey are inadequate staffing, outdated or insufficient equipment, and a lack of space in high-demand units. The survey suggested that CRMC invest in modern equipment, expand facilities, and ensure adequate support staff.
Key patient experience concerns were long emergency room wait times, inconsistent communication with patients and families, and unsafe nurse-to-patient ratios. The survey suggested improving emergency room efficiency, ensuring timely updates to patients, and enhancing bedside manner and empathy.
The survey showed declines in some areas including equal opportunity promotion and management engagement.
Chief Human Resource Officer Angel Lewis said the medical center will form a plan to see how some of the declining areas can be improved.
“Our directors have been given their specific department information, and we have also shared this information with the staff already via email,” Lewis said. “So they are able to look a that, the directors will review it at their staff meetings, and they have until August 30 to do that. And then we’re also going to be asking for three action plans from every department, regardless of their score. They have to pick three from their list that Press Ganey has suggested, and they’ll put that into their system once we are back up and running with our internet.”
The board asked if any departments are consistently seeing low scores. Lewis said no.
“Last time we had, I think, a couple of department directors who scored lower, and this time they were at the low quartile, and everybody was either in the medium or high quartile this time,” Lewis said. “So we made some strides, so some departments we look at trends and things like that, but for the most part, I think it’s just sporadic.”
Areas that Cookeville Regional improved included work unit trust, intent to stay if offered a position elsewhere, and employee belonging.
Key said surveys like these are important to understand how employees feel about their workplace. Key said the survey also encourages employees to speak up.
“Everybody says I’m having a good day, but they’ve got four things on their list that they would love to see different,” Key said. “So this helps them be able to relay to us when any other time they may not have that opportunity.”
Key Workplace Culture concerns were burnout, favoritism, lack of recognition, and poor interdepartmental collaboration. The survey suggested that CRMC should foster a culture of respect and teamwork, recognize high performers, and address toxic behaviors.
In other business, Board Member Danny Rader thanked CIO Tim McDermott and the Information Systems team for their efforts in investigating the ransomware attack that took place last Monday.
“I know Buffy and her team, and Hannah (Davis) have really gotten the word out that this is not nearly as bad as it looks, because Tim and his team are on top of it immediately and stopped it immediately. Even though it’s taking some time to get the internet back on, it’s not because it’s a problem, it’s because they are being really, really thorough to be sure that when they do turn it back on, that no problems will arise.”
New Board Member Jay Albrecht was present for his first board meeting after being recently appointed. Albrecht will replace Cheryl Sandlin. Sandlin served on the board for seven years.
“Serving on this board has been an amazing learning experience,” Sandlin said. “I want to thank the executive team, I want to thank the employees, and my fellow board members, especially for allowing me to serve on this board.”