It is the first day on the job for Salem Township Hospital’s new President/CEO.
James Timpe, MS, RT is coming to Salem from HSHS St. Francis Hospital in Litchfield where he has been CEO for the past five years.
Timpe says everyone has been very welcoming and he has already located a home in the city. He was looking for a new position after the management of the Litchfield hospital was realigned. Timpe wanted to stay in rural Illinois and calls Salem Township Hospital the nicest facility he has seen.
“I think they have done a great job here keeping up with everything that needs to happen. With that said, that is something that will have to happen every year from here on out. A hospital is a large operation. It has a large footprint. It always needs something.”
Timpe says his first priority is to get to know the hospital’s operations.
“We are providing safe care. We have great quality scores. We have all that. I want to get to know everybody and get to know how they are doing their jobs. Certainly get to know if there are any pain points. Things they are needing they have been wanting to say but are just waiting for the opportunity. I also want to know what is working well. What can we continue to celebrate? I don’t think we always celebrate enough all the good things that are happening and get that word out there.”
As far as the biggest issues he sees the hospital facing.
“I think all hospitals are facing a lot of headwinds right now. We have a lot of reimbursement issues that are happening. Some of that is Managed Medicare and Managed Medicaid. Those are new things like Medicare Advantage plans which Congress is looking at those because they tend not to pay as much as traditional Medicare. Same thing in Illinois. Medicaid has been an issue for many years.”
Timpe says fewer people going into health care creating shortages of workers is another issue they will deal with going forward.
Timpe has a Masters in Science from Northwestern University in Evanston and worked his way into management from his first medical position in radiology.
