Electra Hospital District celebrates employees, including its first-ever

ELECTRA (KFDX/KJTL) — It takes a lot to make a hospital run and Electra Hospital District officials said their employees are who keep the wheels spinning.

As we begin celebrating our healthcare heroes this month, we’ll explore how Electra has kept employees a priority for the past 47 years and counting.

47 years ago, Mary Quillen set foot into the Electra Memorial Hospital and she hasn’t left since.

“She still works here and that just goes to show how much, once you come here, you don’t leave because you really are family to us,” Chief Strategy Officer Ashley Honea said.

Quillen, who is the Health Information Manager and in charge of credentialing, was the first employee for the Electra Hospital District and now the longest. It’s a feat Honea said does not go unnoticed.

“She is so special because she’s seen it grow from 30 employees to 274 and so just with that growth she’s got to see the changes for patient care, the changes in facility, the changes in technology and so just for her to get to see that from start to where we are now is really really special,” Honea said.

Quillen said it’s a wonderful place to work and that she’s seen the move from hard copy medical records to a combination, to fully digital.

Marketing Director Lindsey Yoder believes there’s a reason employees, like Quillen, stick around for the long haul.

“This place is amazing and that’s one of the reasons why I wanted to come work here, the community is so tight-knit, they care for their employees, they want their employees to stay like Ashley talked about, the first employee is still here,” Yoder said. “When people come here they don’t leave and that’s something that really intrigued me and I wanted to be a part of something like that too.”

From records and registration to nurses, respiratory therapists, physical therapists and pharmacists, EHD is a well-oiled machine.

“The majority I would say come to us because of our employees because they truly have the best patient care that you can find anywhere and they really do care about their patients,” Honea said. “The majority of them they know and they have personal relationships with so it’s not just in and out with us, you make sure that you come in, we really get to know you and then we provide the best patient care that we can.”

Besides the hospital itself, there are three clinics, two pharmacies, an ambulance service, a medical supply company and a daycare, but it’s not the buildings that make up the foundation.

“Electra has great facilities and services, but our employees is what sets us above and beyond from everybody else,” Honea said.

“They are the representation of Electra Hospital District, they are what makes the hospital run, that’s what makes the district run and so without them, we wouldn’t be who we are,” Yoder added.

To celebrate their own, Electra has big plans for hospital week with a theme of “Influencers of EHD.”

“They are the ones who are face to face with the patients and they’re the ones who get our name out there and so they have to influence people’s decisions in order for them to want to pick our services and be a part of our community,” Yoder said.

“We know that they come to work every single day and they show up and they do their job, but for them and for us it’s so much more than that, they’re the reason that we ‘re so successful,” Honea added.

A place people, like Quillen, make their second home feel like home for so many in the Texoma community.