Coosa Valley Medical Center

S.S. Nesbitt: The Solution to a Risk Management Nightmare

For hospitals, risk management can be a nightmare scenario of property loss and employment issues complicated by liability and malpractice exposures. When its previous insurance vendor didn’t deliver, Coosa Valley Medical Center began talking with S.S. Nesbitt. Hospital CEO Glenn Sisk says, “We needed to find someone who could become a solution for us.” 

Business Partners Manage Risk Together

Improving security and reducing costs for a community health care resource

Glenn Sisk, CEO of Coosa Valley Medical Center southeast of Birmingham, is too busy running a hospital to obsess about catastrophes that could strike the organization. Yet a hospital faces extraordinary business risks, from property loss, employment issues, and workers’ compensation to liabilities related to nursing care and malpractice. To shield the hospital from potentially devastating financial claims, Sisk relies on S.S. Nesbitt risk management experts, who’ve improved both the hospital’s security and its bottom line.

“When I went to hospital administration school, they didn’t teach me how to put together an insurance portfolio to shelter the company from risk,” says Sisk, who has led the 223-bed hospital since 2001.

“And we are not part of a corporate entity, either, with large cash reserves that would allow us to insure ourselves. So we needed to find someone who could become a solution for us.”

Finding a Solution

S.S. Nesbitt, an independent company based in Birmingham, provides businesses with full-service risk management solutions. Risk management consultant & agent, Jeremy Long reviewed the medical center’s insurance portfolio and recommended changes that protected the hospital better while reducing its overall costs.

“There were risks identified that, frankly, we were not experienced enough to identify,” explains Sisk.

As he worked to reduce the hospital’s risk exposure, Long also found ways for Sisk to save money. For instance, Long improved the hospital’s bottom line by indentifying issues that saved the hospital 50% in workers compensation costs. In 2006, S.S. Nesbitt became the center's exclusive risk management partner; offering risk management education for the center's physicians and staff. The insurance company has even arranged risk-management education for physicians and staff.

“Anybody can provide a policy that covers most risks,” explains Long, “but getting involved in the details and in mitigating those exposures — that’s where we really help.” 

“No Business More Important”

“I might suggest that there is no other business in the world more important than mitigating risk,” says Sisk. “The S.S. Nesbitt team has done an outstanding job of providing a level of comfort that we are doing everything we need to do, reducing our risk and helping us ensure that our costs are maintained at an appropriate level.”

He adds that S.S. Nesbitt’s proactive approach has worked well for Coosa Valley Medical Center. “We genuinely believe they have the best interests of this organization at heart and are working to ensure that we’re here to do this for a long time,” he says. “What they deliver is a confidence level that our needs will be met going forward.”

Long points to similarities between Sisk’s business and the insurance industry, which both depend on specialized expertise, service, and trust. “There’s an interesting correlation between health care and the services we provide,” says Long. “When a patient comes to a hospital, it’s not typically because they want to be there. They have to be there to fix an issue. And typically when a client calls us, it is not because of something fun, either. It’s a complex process to identify exposures that need attention.  It’s about diagnosing and consulting; not just the cost of the care.”

Sisk says he’s confident that his hospital is mitigating those exposures with the most affordable and secure insurance products available. “S.S. Nesbitt has helped ensure that Coosa Valley Medical Center, which is the largest employer in our community, will be here long term,” he says. “They want to make sure we are okay today, and they also want to make sure we are okay 10 years from now.”

Preparing for the Future

What the health care industry may look like in 10 years is anyone’s guess. 

“Health care is changing dramatically,” Sisk says. “It’s pretty daunting when you think about what lies ahead. There are so many unanswered questions that risk management protection becomes vitally important. We have got to be prepared. 

“So it’s very important that we have people we can trust — that we know will be with us today, tomorrow and next week — to ensure that answers are provided to us.  It’s refreshing and comforting to know we have a relationship like we do with like S. S. Nesbitt. 

“S. S. Nesbitt has assisted us in preparing for our future.”