Recently, Kevin Rogols, president and chief executive, laid out the hospital’s 2009 plans for hospital commissioners.

The first priority will be improving customer service, he said. A recent survey showed that customers were most unhappy with the emergency room and inpatient and outpatient care.

Starting next year, the hospital’s 1,300 employees will be required to attend training in customer service. “This is an area where we did not meet expectations,” Rogols said. “We understand that, and we want the board to understand that we will work very, very hard to close the loop so we don’t bring it back to you next year.”

Patients will notice a difference in the service, said Ruth Marler, chief operating officer of the Smithfield hospital. Inpatients will be checked every hour all day. White boards will list the doctors, nurses and other staff responsible for the patients in every room. Managers will be expected to make contact with patients within 24 hours after being admitted. Staff will follow up with patients on their customer-service experiences after discharge.

Employees will be evaluated to make sure they are caring for patients properly, Marler said. “We are checking off for acknowledgement, introduction and explanation of what is going to be done,” she said. “They should always finish with each and every single patient: ‘Thank you. Is there anything I can do for you? I have the time.’”

Next year will bring a handful of landmarks for Johnston Medical Center, Rogols said. Among the most noteworthy is the opening of Clayton’s first full-service hospital on N.C. 42 West. Also, sleep medicine and cardiology will likely expand.

Other than poor customer service, the hospital has had a good year, Rogols said.

“We know that we have repositioned the image, modernized the logo and created new names,” he said. “We had three surveys throughout the hospital, and the nursing staff did not receive one single request for improvement.”

“We had a capital campaign,” he added. “We will be at $4 million by the end of the year. We recruited a lot of new doctors, a new vice president of human resources and a new vice president of Johnston Medical Center-Smithfield. We focused on the quality of care, mutual respect, customer satisfaction and financial strength.”