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Aurora Health Care food service executive named 2007 Premier Illuminating Excellence Award winner
John Riegler cited for exceptional leadership in healthcare foodservice
CHARLOTTE, NC (July 25, 2007) – John Riegler, Regional Director of Foodservice Management, St. Luke’s Medical Center, Aurora Health Care, Milwaukee, Wisc., who monitors foodservice contract compliance for all 12 Aurora hospitals and manages operations for five, is the winner of the 2007 Premier Illuminating Excellence Award for his exceptional leadership in the healthcare foodservice field.
The award was presented at the Premier alliance’s annual Foodservice Forum, held in conjunction with its annual Breakthroughs Conference and Exhibition, which drew more than 3,000 healthcare system and supplier attendees to Orlando from June 19-22.
Riegler was cited “for his successes in eliminating agency hours, dramatically decreasing foodservice employee turnover, and reducing overtime significantly as well as special contributions promoting Aurora’s Planetree hospital model of patient-centered healing environments,” said Debby Kasper, manager of clinical nutrition at Premier.
The nine finalists were Jewel Buchanan, East Alabama Medical Center, Opelika, Ala.; Tonya Burnett, St. Rita’s Medical Center, Lima, Ohio; Julie Carrigan, Garden City Hospital, Garden City, Mich.; Stephen Clark, St. Ann’s Community, Rochester, N.Y.; Lisette Coston, St. Francis Health System, Tulsa, Okla.; Stan Hodes, Baptist Hospital of Miami, Miami; Karen Klinkner, Avera Queen of Peace, Mitchell, S.D.; Steve Kramer, Laurel Health System, Wellsboro, Pa.; and Ron Rech, Resurrection Medical Center, Chicago, Ill. The Premier Illuminating Excellence Award recognizes accomplishments and improvements in operations including patient satisfaction scores and documented cost savings, activities that support the values and mission of the organization, participation in the Premier alliance, professional and community activities and personal achievements in the last year. From 2000 to 2005, Riegler decreased agency hours from more than 30,000 annually to none. In the past five years, he cut foodservice employee turnover in half from 43 percent to 21 percent and overtime was decreased from more than 23,000 hours to just 3,600. Employees identified $295,000 in patient saving ideas. The department serves 3.87 million meals – including 1,700 mobile meals a day.
As part of their effort on behalf of Planetree, Riegler and his staff at West Allis Memorial Hospital partnered with local community members to create an aromatic organic culinary herb garden in a visible location on the hospital grounds.
Under his direction, the department also developed the “Adopt-A-Floor” program. Through this program, the hospital’s chefs, dieticians, nurse managers and other food operations staff (about 140 participants in all) are assigned to one of the hospital’s 14 floors. Every day, for 15 minutes to an hour, they walk their floors and visit patients, asking them about their overall satisfaction with meals and other issues.
The largest healthcare alliance in the U.S. dedicated to improving patient outcomes while safely reducing the cost of care, Premier is committed to a comprehensive approach to delivering member value through its Foodservice Program. With more than $1.9 billion in foodservice product and supply purchasing, the Premier Foodservice Program offers breakthrough savings and rebates to more than 1,500 hospitals and 46,500 other healthcare sites in all 50 states.
About Premier, 2006 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recipient
Serving 1,700 hospitals and more than 47,000 other healthcare sites, Premier
is the largest healthcare alliance in the United States dedicated to
improving patient outcomes while safely reducing the cost of care. Owned by not-for-profit hospitals, Premier operates one of the nation's largest healthcare purchasing networks and the most comprehensive repository of hospital clinical and financial information. Premier Insurance Management Services, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary, operates one of the largest policy-holder owned, hospital professional liability risk-retention groups in healthcare.
Headquartered in San Diego, Premier has offices in Charlotte, N.C.,
Philadelphia and Washington. For more information, visit
www.premierinc.com.