QUINCY — Walking through the halls, Blessing Health System President and Chief Executive Officer Brian Canfield greets employees this week with a hello and a happy new year wish.
“Every single day seeing the faces of our employees wherever I happen to come across them, being greeted with a smile and the pride that they love what they’re doing, that’s what gives me energy — and knowing they’re translating that to the patients they’re caring for and the visitors,” said Canfield, who took on his current role in October after a “very, very smooth transition” when Maureen Kahn stepped down.
“We’ve got some pretty lofty goals ahead of us. Fortunately we had a chance to talk about those while she was actually still here, so it was more of a group effort than a Brian Canfield effort,” he said. “I am absolutely not fearful of making decisions when decisions need to be made, but if you’re really going to get everybody’s buy-in, especially as a new person, everybody needs to have their voices heard and to make sure that whatever issues they may have have been discussed and addressed.”
System goals this year, set by its board, range from focusing on quality of care and the pathway to zero harm from hospitalization to employee and provider satisfaction and engagement, enhancing access to care and maintaining the organization’s fiscal health.
“That’s what they expect. That’s what we’re going to deliver, so whatever happens to anyone in our community, we’re going to be here to take care of them,” Canfield said.
Canfield speaks with the quiet confidence honed in a 28-year career serving in the U.S. Army and the Department of Defense, with his last assignment as commanding officer/CEO of Womack Army Medical Center at Fort Bragg, followed by nine years as chief operating officer at Firsthealth of The Carolinas and Moore Regional Hospital in Pinehurst, N.C.
Ready for a change, Canfield traded the East Coast for Quincy in 2021 to join Blessing Health System as its COO before taking on the role of Blessing Hospital president in August 2022.
“Both my wife and I are from the Midwest. I was born and raised in Iowa, then moved to Minnesota. She’s from Minnesota,” he said. “It was really an opportunity to get back to where we’re actually from and to be closer to our aging parents.”
Canfield also was drawn to the Blessing system as another avenue to expand his work in medical administration.
“This health system is very similar in size and scope to what I’ve come from and, in many ways, I think better than what I had experienced. I saw opportunities to bring what I had learned and seen somewhere else and maybe offer an opportunity to raise our potential,” Canfield said.
He highlights strengths of Blessing — including earning a magnet designation for its nursing staff in the midst of COVID-19, growing the workforce of tomorrow at its Blessing-Riemann College of Nursing and Health Sciences and celebrating its open heart surgery program at a February gala — but also points to challenges.
“Not unlike many other organizations across the nation, our workforce in health care has been a challenge. Many people have stepped away from clinical roles to do something else or may even have decided to retire when they could have worked for a while longer,” he said. “We’re trying to replenish that, regain that solid foothold of having a workforce that’s stable.”
Work continues to broaden access to care from telephone access to prescription refills to alternate methods to seek care with drive-through Express Clinics in Quincy and Pittsfield and specialists visiting area critical access hospitals.
Hospital capacity remains an issue during high-demand times such as this year’s flu season which also sees rising numbers of COVID and respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV.
“Our hospital is relatively full, but we’re managing just fine and accepting transfers from our neighbors and whatever else we need to do to care for the families and the communities we serve,” Canfield said.
Meanwhile, the health system also works toward longer-term goals.
“What we’re doing right now is focusing on care delivery models in footprints that we have,” he said. “We do have a master plan that takes us out a number of years that will renovate the interior of this hospital building. I would imagine at some point we’ll have to focus on that — a phase-by-phase, floor-by-floor refit that will be done. As far as building new, nothing is on the horizon right now.”