Hutches to leave MMH at year-end

After a successful four-year stint as president and CEO of Melissa Memorial Hospital, Trampas Hutches will resign at the end of the year to take the reins of Franklin Community Health Network in Maine.

“This place will always have a soft spot in my heart,” Hutches said last week, expressing his appreciation and admiration for MMH and the community of Holyoke.

Citing professional growth opportunities as his reason for leaving, Hutches said he will be responsible for close to 1,000 employees when he starts his new position Jan. 1 in Maine.

Never one to back down from a challenge, he said his new role creates a whole lot of exciting things to test his skills and abilities in ways he’s never been tested before.

Hutches informed the East Phillips County Hospital District board of his career move decision Nov. 4 and shared his plans with the hospital staff Nov. 8.

The hospital board met in a special meeting Tuesday, Nov. 12, to consider succession plan options and their implementation.

“Trampas leaves the organization better than he found it almost four years ago,” said board president Steve Young.

“We will miss his excellent leadership and entrepreneurial spirit, but we are excited to continue the strategic plan as lined out to continue to provide excellent health care services and remain the leader in health care in our region,” he added.

Hutches is, and should be, proud of what has been accomplished with what he calls the MMH family during the past four years.

“We have grown our market share from 39% to 80% and have made tremendous strides by becoming stronger together during difficult decisions,” said Hutches.

Having won the 59th best place to work and first healthiest place to work for health care in 2019 in America by Modern Healthcare, MMH has turned into an organization that is well respected not only in Colorado but now in the nation, Hutches pointed out.

With numerous new services at MMH, the organization’s income has doubled in the last three years.

Among the services implemented during Hutches’ four-year tenure at MMH are the retail pharmacy, dental services and optical services, as well as chemotherapy and wound care programs.

Full-time paramedic EMS services were also implemented, and the number of calls for service tripled, with decreased response times.

New full-time MRI services were highlighted with a 64-slice CT scanner, new ultrasound procedures and lab procedures.

A 24/7 year-round AirLife Helicopter base was brought to MMH as a major accomplishment.

Surgical services were rebuilt to include new general surgery procedures, an orthopedic joint replacement program and many other new ones.

With all of the new services, 31 full-time jobs were created in the past four years with an average wage of $28 per hour.

A hospital expansion project was completed on time and under budget as another achievement to be proud of.

High quality outcomes are touted with no surgical site infections in six years, zero hospital acquired infections for the past four years, a decrease in population health diseases such as teen obesity and hypertension, and an increase in control of diabetes for diabetics.

Data speaks loudly, and numbers from the past four years speak well.

Clinic volumes were increased to the highest on record and the time to next third appointment was decreased from 14 days to 2.5 days. There were also multiple months of “100% likely to recommend” on ratings of provider patient satisfaction scores.

Employee engagement/satisfaction increased from 44% to 94%, with the medical staff portion of the employee overall satisfaction at 90%.

Staff turnover decreased from 39% to 11%, and cash collections increased by 160%.

Hutches was not only a strong leader in the hospital but also in the community and in the region.

He was elected to a seat on the Holyoke School District Re-1J Board of Education two years ago and enjoyed that involvement in the community.

He also served as chairman of the Eastern Plains Healthcare Consortium that doubled membership, doubled the budget and now represents nearly one-third of the landmass of the state of Colorado. The consortium helps hospitals remain independent and recognizes the economies of scale of health systems.

As president of Franklin Community Health Network, based in Farmington, Maine, Hutches will succeed Timothy Churchill, who is retiring.

“In Trampas, we get a leader who understands the challenges of delivering health care in a rural setting and someone who has been on the front lines of health care and knows the kind of dedication it takes day in and day out to deliver great care to patients,” said Richard Petersen, president of MaineHealth, the Portland-based parent of FCHN in announcing Hutches as the new FCHN president.

FCHN is a nonprofit, integrated network of rural health care providers created by Franklin Memorial Hospital in 1991. Its affiliates include Franklin Memorial Hospital, Franklin Health, Evergreen Behavioral Services, Healthy Community Coalition of Greater Franklin County and NorthStar EMS.