Community Hospital Corporation (CHC) is proud to announce Karen Barber, Chief Executive Officer of Yoakum Community Hospital, as the winner of the 2016 President's Leadership Excellence Award. Yoakum Community Hospital is a 25-bed, critical access hospital based in Yoakum, Texas.
Barber was recognized as a motivating leader who possesses relationship-building skills and a contagious passion for improving health care within and beyond their community.
"It is my pleasure to present the President's Leadership Excellence Award to Karen," said Michael D. Williams, CHC president and CEO. "Her leadership has made Yoakum Community Hospital a better place for staff, physicians, patients and the community."
Janet Theaker, CHC Vice President of Human Resources, was inspired to nominate Barber based on her success as a hospital CEO and as a model leader for others. "Karen is a superstar leader in every way," said Theaker. Barber has also fostered positive physician and board relationships.
During her service as CEO since 2006, Barber has helped to form the Yoakum Community Hospital Foundation, bring new physicians to the community, add new services, renovate the hospital and construct a Medical Office Building, and spearhead an IT conversion and electronic health record implementation.
Through her vision to improve employee satisfaction, Barber adopted CHC's RISE program designed around values including Respect, Integrity, Stewardship and Excellence. Since implementing the employee recognition program, overall employee satisfaction has risen from 68% to 97% this year.
Barber's ability to motivate performance improvement has resulted in a number of awards and recognitions, such as 2015 four-star recognition by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, as well as 2014 Silver and 2012 Bronze Awards in the TMF® Health Quality Institute's Texas Hospital Quality Improvement Award program.
In 2015, Barber was welcomed to the Texas Hospital Association's Board of Trustees and received a Texas Sons of Hermann Humanitarian Award. In 2014, she was named to the Becker's Hospital Review list of 50 Rural Hospital CEOs to Know, and a year prior, the hospital was named to Becker's list of "100 Great Community Hospitals." In 2010, Barber received the Texas Hospital Association's Pioneer Award recognizing excellence in rural hospital management.
Among her credentials, Barber holds an associate's degree in nursing and a BS in Psychology. She is Rotarian and very active in her local community.
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