New hospital administrator says his world revolves around family

link Vince DiFranco

Staff writer

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Plains Regional Medical Center Hospital Administrator Vince DiFranco said his world revolves around family, which may have given Clovis an edge when he interviewed for the job back in October.

“We are used to small towns, we kind of like the quality of life of a smaller community,” DiFranco said. “We just like the safety, security, the friendliness of a smaller community, and we have certainly found that in Clovis.”

After serving for four years as the CEO of Community Hospital in Torrington, Wyoming, he and his wife packed up their kids and moved to Clovis, where he began his new position Feb. 23.

As the hospital administrator, DiFranco said his role is to provide staff with the resources they need to do their job to the best of their ability and establish a high set of standards for the hospital.

“That's the most fun part of my job,” DiFranco said. “It's kind of helping to establish a vision for what we can be, what we think we can be, and also looking at what gaps there might be in the community by way of healthcare opportunities.”

Part of that vision is to identify needed specialties in the hospital and recruit physicians to expand services offered to patients in eastern New Mexico.

“Our goal is to take care of more patients here, where they don't have to travel out side of our community for healthcare services,” DiFranco said. “Part of my role is to help build those, enhance those and recruit more physicians here.”

Although DiFranco said it can be a challenge recruiting physicians to rural areas, he said the family-friendly quality that attracted him to Clovis is also a useful recruiting strategy in identifying and attracting outside physicians.

“A lot of times in rural communities, families are good fits,” DiFranco said. “The key is trying to find out the best candidates and trying to help them picture how they would do well in Clovis and how they would fit in. You start networking — you're helping to try to make these connections within the community.”

DiFranco's long-term vision also includes evaluating new technologies in health care and evaluating the space in existing hospital facilities for current specialties and future additions.

“One of the things that surprised me… when you look at how many babies we deliver at this hospital for the size of the community and the size of the hospital — it's way above average,” DiFranco said. “We deliver over 100 babies a month here and that's a tremendous volume for a hospital our size, and part of it is the demographics of the community. With the base we have younger families and we just have kind of a family oriented community like that.”

“And so we really want to look at our pediatric unit and our (obstetrics) unit to make sure that we have adequate space moving forward,” DiFranco said.

DiFranco said after two months of working in the hospital, he's been very impressed with the dedication and expertise of the staff.

“Having a successful hospital is certainly not a one-person job,” DiFranco said. “It takes a great team, and there is an excellent team here.”

“I really enjoy what I do. I just really enjoy healthcare. It's such a unique business. It has such a higher mission to me, because we are serving a community.”