After 32 years working in numerous positions at Lackey Memorial Hospital Donna Riser, Administrator for Lackey Convalescent Home, announced her retirement late last week. Riser joined the Lackey team in 1987 as an Administrative Secretary and ultimately worked her way up the ranks to Hospital Administrator in July 1995. She remained in the hospital’s head administrator role for 19 years and was an integral part of leading Lackey into the new century of medical care.
In 1995 when Riser took over the reins at Lackey Memorial the hospital was struggling to turn a profit, but right from the beginning Riser knew what direction she wanted to take the hospital. “When I first took over, Lackey was struggling desperately after going through numerous hospital administrators,” she said. “The previous administrators had been from out of town and brought in out of town managers. They never really connected with the local community and the community never really got behind them and supported them.”
From the first day Riser took over as head administrator she had two goals in mind. “I wanted to build a hospital team of ‘home folk’ that could grow into an actual work family that could connect and really understand our local patients,” she said. “After we made some changes the hospital just took off and has continued to grow and be innovative to offer our community the best possible health care available.”
Current Lackey Administrator Sydney Sawyer has worked with Riser for more than 20 years and said that her retirement is like loosing part of the Lackey family. “Donna was instrumental in creating a family environment here at Lackey and we have worked together to create and maintain that work environment for over two decades,” Sawyer said. “We have worked together to ensure that our patients have the best people and best equipment available.”
Sawyer went on to say that he has worked at other hospitals where they attempted to emulate the success of Lackey, but they were never able to fully recreate the success that Lackey has enjoyed for decades. “Donna brought in a family environment at Lackey and the local community really got behind the hospital and has supported our progress for years,” said Sawyer. “I spent time working with numerous other hospitals that are the same size as Lackey. We used what we do here as a blueprint to try and recreate the success of Lackey, but it never really worked because we didn’t have the people that we have here, and Donna Riser is a big part of that reason.”
“I have always believed that we should take care of all the communities health care needs and have a good time doing it,” Riser said.
The family oriented work environment envisioned and implemented by Riser is still going strong today as can be seen by the tenure of the hospital staff. “We have so many people that have been here more than 10 years and even more than that,” Riser said. “We have hospital staff that started out as clerks and have remained on staff and continued their studies and are now Nurse Practitioners right here at Lackey. That is something that both Sydney and I are very proud of.”
As Riser steps away from the day-to-day business activities of the hospital she knows that the hospital is in good hands for the future. “No one could have done it better than Sydney over the last few years. We have always worked great together and he has really stepped in and done a great job as administrator,” she said. “As I step away, I know there is a great foundation here at Lackey and the hospital is ready for future growth.”
Riser said that she hopes to stay involved with the hospital in some capacity, but the future will only be able to tell what that might be. “Lackey has been a true blessing in my life and everyone there is like family to me.”
