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Rio Grande Hospital & Clinics serves one of the most geographically unique healthcare regions in the United States. The organization operates a 25-bed Critical Access Hospital and four rural health clinics serving communities throughout Colorado’s San Luis Valley.
Providing approximately 1,900 primary care visits each month, Rio Grande offers a comprehensive continuum of care, including emergency services, specialty care, rehabilitation, and wellness programs. Despite serving a largely rural population across a vast geographic area, the organization has earned a reputation for delivering high-quality, patient-centered care close to home.
CEO, Rio Grande Hospital & Clinics
Like many healthcare organizations, Rio Grande Hospital faced the challenge of balancing operational demands with the human side of healthcare.
Leadership recognized that improving patient experience required more than isolated initiatives or occasional training sessions. To become both the employer of choice and provider of choice in the communities they served, the organization needed a culture where service excellence, accountability, and employee engagement were part of everyday operations.
Most importantly, leadership understood that service excellence could not be treated as a project. It had to become part of the organization’s identity.
Rio Grande Hospital partnered with Custom Learning Systems to implement a comprehensive Service Excellence framework focused on creating lasting cultural change.
From the beginning, CEO Arlene Harms and her leadership team remained actively involved, modeling the behaviors they hoped to see throughout the organization and empowering employees to become champions of the journey.
Service Excellence Advisors (SEAs) were established across the organization to reinforce key principles, support employee engagement efforts, and help sustain momentum. These employee champions quickly became an essential part of Rio Grande’s culture.
One of the organization’s most successful initiatives was the SEA Game Ball recognition program. Employees who demonstrated exceptional service and teamwork were recognized by their peers and then invited to identify the next recipient. What began as a simple recognition initiative evolved into an ongoing cycle of appreciation, visibility, and encouragement that strengthened collaboration across departments and reinforced the organization’s values.
Admissions Clerk & Service Excellence Advisor Super Coach
As Rio Grande’s culture evolved, so did its relationship with the community.
Employees regularly volunteer at local events, participate in community parades, support migrant worker health fairs, provide health screenings, and share wellness resources throughout the region. These efforts are not viewed as community outreach activities, but as an extension of the organization’s mission.
By meeting people where they are, Rio Grande Hospital has strengthened trust, improved accessibility, and reinforced its commitment to serving the health of the entire community.
One of Rio Grande Hospital’s most valuable lessons came through experience. After initially partnering with Custom Learning Systems in 2012, the organization experienced significant gains in culture and patient experience. When it stepped away from the process in 2015 and 2016, leaders began to notice declines in key measures. The experience reinforced an important lesson: culture is not something achieved once and maintained automatically. It requires ongoing attention, accountability, and reinforcement.
Since re-engaging in 2017, Rio Grande Hospital has continued to strengthen its culture and build on its success.
Today, the organization is recognized as one of the highest-performing rural hospitals in the nation, earning numerous awards for quality, patient experience, and organizational excellence. More importantly, service excellence has become woven into the fabric of the organization. Employees recognize one another’s contributions, leaders remain engaged and visible, and patients experience a culture built on compassion, accountability, and excellence.
Today, Rio Grande Hospital views service excellence not as a destination, but as an ongoing commitment.
The organization continues to invest in its people, strengthen community partnerships, and build upon the culture it has spent years creating.
For Rio Grande Hospital, that commitment continues to guide every step of the journey; and proves that even a small rural hospital can achieve extraordinary results when culture comes first.
CEO, Rio Grande Hospital & Clinics
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