March 24, 2021
Leading And Learning | Phil Luitjens
After 17 years at CentraCare, Phil Luitjens has learned a lot. For most of his career he led Surgical Services where his teams performed life-changing and sometimes life-saving procedures on a daily basis. On average, roughly 60 patients visit CentraCare’s many locations every day to receive surgical care. That’s a lot of surgeries, and a lot of trust. For Luitjens, it’s also meant a lot of appreciation for the expertise and dedication of his staff.
In February 2021, Luitjens was named Vice President Operations, Acute Care. Once again he’s looking forward to learning about the new teams he’ll be leading. “I’m not a clinician by trade, but I admire our clinical teams because they do important and complex work. I feel fortunate to be part of making decisions that influence the care we provide.”
“We had to be creative in how we deliver safe, high-quality care, and as a result we’re starting to better utilize our resources.”
This past year, the pandemic forced a whole new set of difficult decisions. “Having to literally shut down our O.R.’s to non-emergent cases overnight was a challenge,” he said. “But I’m proud of how our teams responded.” Now, as patient volumes return to normal, he reflects on how the pandemic pushed them to think differently. “We had to be creative in how we deliver safe, high-quality care, and as a result we’re starting to better utilize our resources.”
Luitjens is looking forward to continuing that out-of-the box thinking to better serve patients. He believes one of the biggest opportunities will be how to leverage services and facilities all across the region. “We have absolutely beautiful critical access hospitals spread throughout central and southwestern Minnesota,” he said. “Our patients want care close to home, so we need to continue thinking creatively in how we deliver that care.”
As Luitjens begins his new role, he’s looking forward to working with new areas of the organization. And he’s feeling energized. “I spent time with our orthopedic team the other day and their connectedness, efficiency and communication was amazing. I then spent time with the staffing office – talk about a team that embodies hard work and commitment. There’s an unbelievable amount of work that goes on behind the scenes in our organization to make it all work.”
While he’s only a few weeks into his new role, he’s inspired by the highly skilled and committed people who walk the halls every day. “Our people make our mission possible. Together, we’ve done some remarkable work and I’m looking forward to advancing the level of performance of our teams.”