Page 11 - Silver Linings Issue3

Leaning on her experience to shape the future
Meet Lisa Benton, Silver Hill Hospital’s Chief Quality Officer
Lisa Benton has worked at Silver Hill Hospital for 23 years, but you won’t catch her longing for the good old days. In the time she has been here, change has been the constant.
“We always have to be evolving,” she says. “We’re small; we’re not part of
a big system. To survive and thrive, we have to evolve. We have to be responsive to the changing conditions in the market, the regulatory environment, and new standards and modalities of care.”
As Chief Quality Officer and part of the executive team, Lisa oversees
“She does
everything with the consciousness of a
social worker,” Silver
Hill Hospital President
and Medical Director
Andrew J. Gerber, MD, PhD, says. “She’s forward-focused and has a knack for recruiting the best talent. She’s very inspiring.”
Lisa oversees Silver Hill’s HR department and, along with new human resources director Cheryl Weekes, is working to develop and implement a new HR strategy that
The HR strategies will also have built-in components to have opportunities for growth more ingrained into the work culture
at Silver Hill. Lisa is proof that opportunities exist at the hospital.
Lisa has worked for four administrations at the hospital, starting with Dr. Richard Frances, followed by Dr. Sigurd Ackerman, Dr. John Santopietro, and, currently, Dr. Andrew Gerber. Each administration, she says, comes with its own lens and vision on how to drive the hospital forward. Talent, modernizing processes and clinical programming are among the major focuses of the current administration.
As a member of the executive team, Lisa has a strong voice in shaping the future of the hospital. It is a role she takes seriously. Like many of her ideas and actions, her input comes from the heart, which is a common theme among other employees at Silver Hill.
“Through all of the changes and the ones coming in the future, the thread, always, is the compassion,” Lisa says. “Even faced with the pandemic and fast-paced change to meet the financial demands of the institution, when you talk to patients you always hear about the compassion. That’s what is most important to your patients, the connection to people.”
the hospital’s processes and practices and looks for opportunities to make them safer, more efficient and yield the best outcomes. Her department also assures the hospital is compliant with regulations from governing bodies.
“Silver Hill has been growing and changing since its inception. The pace has picked up lately. With this growth and the complexity of the health care environment, we need to take on new challenges. We need support to do that.”
takes a fresh look at where the workforce is now.
There are big changes in the workforce, Lisa says, because of
a variety
of factors including COVID and age demographics. Silver Hill also has a desire
For the hospital to evolve,
she says, outside support
is imperative. “Because
we are a small, nonprofit, hospital, we need donor support to be able to
constantly evolve, be nimble and be able to implement important initiatives,” she says.
to improve its diversity profile. The HR strategy will address benefits, compensation, new approaches to employee wellness, work-life balance and cultural changes.
“You can’t have a high-quality, highly functioning, thriving hospital if you don’t have happy, engaged, cared for, tended to staff,” she adds. “I’m very passionate about that, as is
Dr. Gerber.”
Lisa came to Silver Hill as an intern while working toward her master’s degree in social work at Columbia University. She was hired by Silver Hill as a social worker right out of the internship and worked her way up to the executive team.
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SILVER LININGS MAGAZINE | ISSUE THREE | FALL 2021