New Turlock hospital CEO doesn’t shy away from emergency, operating room troubles

The new chief executive officer of Emanuel Medical Center said he learned pretty quickly that Turlock residents are frustrated with long wait times in the hospital’s emergency department.

Dr. Murali Naidu said a new practice at the hospital should shorten the waiting period for patients and make sure they get an expert evaluation for their next step in care.

A team including a nurse, doctor and specialists will see each patient in the ED beds at the same time. Typically, a patient has his or her vital signs checked by a nurse, is placed in a bed and then waits for an examination from each specialist.

“We have clinicians who are doing a great job, but the patients are having to wait too long,” Naidu said in an interview Wednesday.

Naidu began his position at Emanuel on Nov. 15 and assumed responsibility for hospital operations, planning and direction of medical services.

He came from Doctors Hospital of Manteca, where he was the top executive since early 2020. The Turlock and Manteca hospitals are sister facilities of Doctors Medical Center of Modesto, all of them owned by Tenet Healthcare Corp.

The 209-bed Emanuel is almost three times larger than Doctors of Manteca and receives twice the number of emergency visits.

Near the end of August, The Modesto Bee reported a problem with thin staffing in Emanuel’s emergency department. A unionized nurse said at times there were only three nurses staffing the department and patients were waiting for hours to be seen.

Naidu said Wednesday he didn’t have numbers on the current staffing level. “I can’t imagine we would only have three or four nurses (in the ED),” he said. “We are always looking to staff as safely as possible.”

Staffing shortages are a challenge faced by hospitals across the country due to the coronavirus pandemic and ongoing workforce issues in the nursing field, Naidu said.

He said Emanuel is looking at every opportunity to boost nursing staff, including traveling nurses, reaching out to college nursing programs and shifting staff from other areas of the hospital when it’s effective.

Administrator was a practicing surgeon

Naidu has “doctor” in his title because he is a laparoscopic surgeon. He graduated from the UCLA School of Medicine and had surgical practices for more than 10 years before going into health care administration.

Prior to joining Tenet Healthcare, Naidu was the chief physician executive at Managed Care Systems in Bakersfield. According to a Tenet news release, Naidu had a pivotal role as Managed Care Systems took in 140,000 members and 750 physicians.

“As a physician CEO, Dr. Naidu is dedicated to prioritizing the patient experience and making sure we provide excellent care for each person who walks through our doors,” said Warren Kirk, CEO of Tenet’s Northern California Group. “I am confident that Emanuel will continue to grow under his leadership to serve the needs of our patients in Turlock and surrounding communities.”

Naidu didn’t shy away from discussing issues that resulted in a brief shutdown of operating rooms at Emanuel last summer, which occurred months before he began the new position.

He said state regulators conducted a survey and identified deficiencies in sterilization processes. The operating rooms were closed for a couple of days to rectify the problem and refinish the floors.

“When the state Department of Public Health comes to visit, in some cases it requires them to take immediate action,” Naidu said. “The next time state public health comes in, we are looking forward to getting a clean bill of health.”

Naidu is the third executive to serve as CEO at Emanuel in three years and eight months. He replaces Lani Dickinson, who was hired as CEO in July 2018. Dickinson had served a few months as interim CEO and chief nursing director after a leadership shakeup in March 2018.

Tenet spokesperson Krista Deans said Dickinson left the company to pursue other opportunities. “We thank her for her many contributions and service to Emanuel Medical Center,” Deans said by email.

Pandemic isn’t going away yet

The Turlock hospital will continue dealing with pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic while also meeting the needs of patients with chronic health conditions, heart problems and other physical ailments.

Naidu said he expects another coronavirus surge will occur this winter with the omicron or other variants but with less severity than a year ago. He said the differences this year are the vaccination levels in Stanislaus County, technical advances in hospital care and better support for intensive care doctors.

As a physician, Naidu said he plans to bring a sharper focus on patient care at Emanuel and ensure “everyone is getting great care every time.”