Referring to the CHS board, Smith says We are accountable to that board. And about the company s operations goal, This company has grown very rapidly in the last two years. One of my challenges is to bring standardization to the way the company operates, not only from an accounting standpoint but from a qualitative standpoint . . . In speaking about comparisons and contrasts to Humana, Smith says, We were centralized when it came to accounting functions and a lot of things that lend themselves to centralization, but our approach here at Community Health Systems is really more standardization, because we believe everything has to happen in the community. This company is very strong in terms of community boards and their participation.
Local boards have a say about who the administrators are, . . . . . .
Because I think this is a highly ethical industry. That s because, in 30 years in the industry, I have not run across many unethical doctors or health care executives. What we try to do is continue to provide the number of services that are there. We generally increase the number of services. We might enhance the OB unit.