This month the hospital moved to expand its cardiology program by adding electrophysiology, the study of the electrical conduction system of the heart. Now Atrium can use ultrasound technology, catheterization and imaging to collect information to create a visual image of all the heart’s pathways, said Lena Fogle, director of Perioperative Services and Ginny McClure and Lisa Evans, registered nurses.
The following is a question and answer session with Turner:
Q: How have the first six months been?
A: I would have to say the first six months have just flown by. I mean it's really been a bit of a whirlwind, there's been so much happening that it doesn't really seem like its been six months. You don't know quite what's going on with the state budget yet and how that's going to affect health care. Don't know what's going to happen with health care reform at the federal level. Lots of things going on with Premier (Health Partners, its parent company) and we've been very busy here.... Rules still being written for health care reform, so anything you do at this point is just speculation. Value-based purchasing goes in July 1 and that means that hospitals are going to be paid based on their quality scores and service scores.
Q: What kind of changes at Premier are affecting Atrium?
A: We have a brand new strategic plan that's just rolled out this year. And we've had a change in leadership at the top within Premier with Tom Breitenbach's retirement and Jim Pancoast moving into a new role and then Mary Boosalis moving into her new role as the operating officer for the system and we've got quite a few people in senior leadership positions that are relatively new to their position. Jim just took his role, Mary took her role, I took this role, Bobbie Gerhart is the new CEO at Miami Valley and there's a new CEO at Upper Valley, Tom Parker.
Q: What’s been the biggest challenge?
A: There's a lot of things in the first couple of years that you just need to pay attention internally and that sort of limits the amount of time that you have to sit on other boards and participate with other groups. I'm doing some of that, but probably not as much as the community would like to see because the hospital's what, the biggest employer in the city now.... I've really tried to spend time with our medical staff, getting to understand their issues and talk to them about how we partner and collaborate.
Q: What’s been the easiest part?
A: The easiest thing has been to talk about how great Atrium is as a hospital ... I'm really very proud of this place and I think sometimes people don't know what a wonderful hospital it is.
Q: What have you accomplished in the first six months?
A: I wanted to connect with the staff directly. I wanted them to understand what I thought was important in the way we provide care and the way we provide service and I've been able to do that. I'm doing a series of lunches with the president where I have staff level people come and I hear what's on their mind and we talk about what's important here, making sure they understand the mission, vision and our values. I've had an opportunity to talk to our medical staff in a couple of different forms about ways we can partner with them going forward... I really think it's communicating more and using different venues to communicate so that we can get a consistent message out.
Q: Can you elaborate on that and at least how you would like to partner with the medical staff going forward?
A: Our service area has changed a lot. Our service area used to be Middletown proper and now our service area is really from 675 to the north to 275 to the south. So it's partnering with our physicians, our existing practices to add new physicians in those areas and we always want to do that in conjunction with our existing groups. Maybe it's adding a satellite office or a second office or expanding the group. I think that's probably one of the biggest things that we've done.
Q: How has the hospital been able to win patients ... to the south?
A: Part of it is through your medical staff but part of it is for all of us, we have to earn business. We have to provide good care, good service so that nobody wants to be in a hospital, but if they need to, that they feel comfortable coming here to get their care. We've got to do it better. Who knows what this whole landscape's going to look like in another five years with the Dayton suburbs moving south and the Cincinnati suburbs moving north, but there's a lot more competition. But you have to distinguish yourself and I think the way we distinguish ourselves, we got a great plant here, new hospital, we've got great staff, we've got wonderful medical staff, but we've got to distinguish ourself with how we treat our patients, not just with clinical quality, but service too. My mantra with staff has been that I want every patient that comes here to feel like they're being treated like a member of the family.
Q: Is there anything else in particular that’s going to come up for Atrium the rest of the year you’re going to keep an eye on?
A: I think there are some changes in some of the quality measures that all hospitals are going to be dealing with. Expansion of some of the core measures and value based purchasing and the readmits for CHF (congestive heart failure) patients and pneumonia patients and AMI patients (acute myocardial infarction), those are all things that are coming down the pike here. So you have to continually work on what your processes are, what you're doing to care for patients and to provide for patients so that you're prepared when those things come on board. One of the things that's going to happen is if you have a patient that has CHF, that's either a primary or secondary diagnosis and they're here for CHF and if they come back in within 30 days, even if it's from a broken hip or appendicitis or something that has nothing to do with their CHF, you're not going to get paid for that second admission. So you've got those kinds of scenarios that you have to think through how you're set up to provide care for those patients and support for the patient when they leave, sort of a community-based case management approach.
Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2551 or clevingston@coxohio.com.
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