ABOVE: United Hospital District’s new Chief Operating Officer, Jeffon Seely, at the clinic in Fairmont.

FAIRMONT– Amid continuous growth, United Hospital District (UHD) has added a Chief Operating Officer (COO), Jeefon Seely, to its ranks. Seely started in mid August and will focus on people and culture, process and performance and continuous and clear communication

He and his wife, Elisha Webster, moved from Georgia to Blue Earth two years ago when she took a job at UHD as a family medicine doctor.

“She aligned with UHD and what they stand for,” Seely explained.

While she is originally from South Dakota and Jeffon from Utah, the couple also spent time in North Dakota when Webster did her family medicine residency there.

“Moving here was like, it’s a good group of people. It’s been a nice adjustment,” Seely said of relocating to Blue Earth.

Prior to taking his current role, Seely spent the past 10 years doing organizational consultant work. He has a strong leadership background working with people and culture and performance.

The position of COO is new to UHD and comes simply due to the organization’s expansion and growth.

“With Mayo retracting services here in Fairmont and the expansion of our Fairmont clinic, the sheer number of the patients that we have the privilege to serve has been increasing and with that comes more staffing and suddenly you start to recognize the day-to-day operations, if not continually maintained, some things can slip through the cracks,” Seely explained.

With his background, Seely was a natural fit for the role. As COO, he will work with the employees to better understand the level of care and how they can continue to work toward greater levels of patient care. He will also ensure that UHD is continuing to move the marker higher with the services they provide. Finally he will focus on providing continuous and clear communication to not only staff, but the public.

Seely, with the rest of the administration team, is mainly located at the hospital in Blue Earth, but he has made it a point to spend a good amount of time at the clinic in Fairmont, too. UHD also has a clinic in Wells.

Earlier this week, Mayo Clinic announced the closure of its clinic in Wells, which hadn’t been open in some time. Included in the announcement was the decision to transition clinic services in Belle Plaine, Caledonia, Montgomery, North Mankato and St. Peter to alternate Mayo sites.

This announcement came just about a year after Mayo announced the end of labor and delivery and surgical services at the clinic in Fairmont.

As for UHD’s response to the closures of other health facilities, Seely said, “What we can control is continuing to deliver extraordinary care to the patients and from everything that I’ve seen, patients I’ve spoken to, that’s an underlying theme with UHD. We have to continue to do that, coupled with ensuring that we’re in a position to help better serve patients that don’t yet come to UHD.”

UHD has always prided itself on proving care to the rural community. In fact, it’s long had a goal of keeping care close to home.

“Especially with OB. We’ve been bringing on more family medicine doctors that specialize in OB. Our numbers are increasing substantially. If somebody’s going to get ready and deliver, sometimes they can’t drive to Sioux Falls or Mankato or the Twin Cities. We take pride in being able to provide that service,” Seely said. “There’s still going to be people in rural communities and they deserve quality care just as much as anyone else.”

The clinic in Fairmont opened last summer with 12 new exam rooms and two new procedure rooms and since then, Seely shared that the clinic has actually expanded in the back with more rooms for surgeries.

“Our operating room is very busy. Obviously with surgery here leaving with Mayo, we foresee continuing to provide that care and more,” Seely said.

He has goals both personally and professionally, one of which is to learn all 300 plus employees’ names by face. Mostly, Seely wants to be a good leader.

“You can’t expect to make a positive impact on another person if you’re unwilling to make that positive impact within yourself,” he said. “You have to be coming from a place that’s grounded and rooted in peace, compassion and gratitude.”

Seely is optimistic for the future of UHD and happy to be on board.

“There’s something very palpable when you step into an organization like UHD, once you experience it and feel it, it’s unlike a lot of places and I think that’s in direct correlation with the growth and expansion UHD is seeing,” Seely said.