The Changing Face Of

The Changing Face of HEALTHCARE THE 2006-2007 GEORGIA ALLIANCE OF COMMUNITY HOSPITALS YEAR IN REVIEW Georgia Alliance of Table of Contents Community Hospitals 2006-2007 Members Letter from the President ....................................................1 Archbold Medical Center Athens Regional Medical Center The Changing Face of Healthcare ..........2 Brooks County Hospital Clinch Memorial Hospital Georgia’s community hospitals at their best Colquitt Regional Medical Center Columbus Regional Healthcare System, Inc. Save Georgia Healthcare ................................8 DeKalb Medical Center Why Georgia needs to save, strengthen and streamline Dodge County Hospital its Certifi cate of Need (CON) program Donalsonville Hospital, Inc. Early Memorial Hospital Emanuel Medical Center 700 Reginas ................................................................14 Emory Healthcare Floyd Medical Center Upgrading Georgia’s trauma system could save Grady General Hospital hundreds of lives a year Grady Health System Gwinnett Health System, Inc. Gwinnett Medical Center - Duluth Remembering Robert A. Lipson, M.D. .....18 Hamilton Health Care System Houston Healthcare 28th Annual Conference Awards ........................................20 Jeff Davis Hospital Louis Smith Memorial Hospital Meadows Regional Medical Center Hospital of the Year .............................................................21 MCG Health Inc. Medical Center of Central Georgia Sponsors ...............................................................................22 Memorial Hospital and Manor Miller County Hospital Mitchell County Hospital Board of Directors ...............................................................24 Minnie G. Boswell Memorial Hospital Monroe County Hospital Murray Medical Center Newnan Hospital Northeast Georgia Medical Center Northside Hospital Georgia Alliance of Perry Hospital Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital Community Hospitals Phoebe Worth Medical Center Piedmont Healthcare General P.O. Box 1572 Piedmont Mountainside Hospital Tifton, GA 31793 Putnam General Hospital Satilla Regional Medical Center South Georgia Medical Center p (229) 386-8660 f (229) 386-8662 Southeast Georgia Health System Southern Regional Health System President Southwest Georgia Regional Medical Center Monty M. Veazey [email protected] St. Joseph’s/Candler Health System St. Mary’s Health Care System Director of Financial Services Stephens County Hospital Robbie Pope [email protected] Sumter Regional Hospital Tift Regional Medical Center Union General Hospital Director of Governmental Affairs University Hospital Julie Windom [email protected] Warm Springs Medical Center WellStar Health System West Georgia Health System Executive Assistant Wills Memorial Hospital Terry Doolan [email protected] Consultant Kim Chavez [email protected] Photos from top down: Antonio Leroy, Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital’s Men’s Health Coordinator at the Community Health Institute, speaks at the annual Healthy Fathers event; members of the nursing team at Southeast Georgia Health System’s Camden Campus, members of Piedmont Mountainside Hospital team; H. McCord Smith, M.D., of Athens Neurological Associates and Medical Director of St. Mary’s Center for Rehabilitative Medicine speaking at the St Mary’s Health Care System 2nd Annual Community Stroke Forum. Letter from the President Dear Members and Friends, As traditional fi nancial and operating models crumble under The Certifi cate of Need the relentless pressure to do more with less, community (CON) process is a major hospitals search for ways to keep up with healthcare’s changes stabilizing infl uence on and challenges. Georgia’s healthcare system. Repealing or Just making it through a year like 2006 qualifi es as success. And weakening CON, as this edition of the Alliance Annual Review celebrates the efforts opponents propose, of all of Georgia’s community hospitals and hospital executives. will cause some fi nancially distressed But, despite the obstacles, some community hospitals and hospitals to close and executives reached particularly high levels of performance in others to cut back on 2006, and we recognize their achievements in these pages. unprofi table essential They represent the changing face of healthcare. And they services. represent community hospitals at their best. We are asking the General Assembly to close several loopholes No one exemplifi ed executive excellence like Robert A. Lipson, and generally streamline the regulations. Several pages of this M.D., the president and CEO of WellStar, who died in report are devoted to explaining CON and what is at stake. November from injuries suffered from a motor vehicle accident. Another issue expected to get serious attention during the Dr. Lipson was passionate about his work, his family, his 2007 Legislative Session is a statewide trauma system. community, his faith and his friends. He practiced as an internist for more than 25 years at WellStar Kennestone Hospital. In 1993 Georgia desperately needs to upgrade funding and the he joined WellStar and started the WellStar Physicians Group, infrastructure for its network of designated trauma centers. which today has more than 250 physicians and practitioners and Only 15 of the state’s 152 acute hospitals are designated a million patient visits annually. trauma centers. We need about twice that number to cover large areas of the state where it is virtually impossible now to Dr. Lipson became CEO and president in 2002 and the fi ve get a patient to a trauma center within the “golden hour” so WellStar hospitals – Kennestone, Cobb, Windy Hill, Douglas critical to the patient’s survival. and Paulding– rapidly became one of the largest and best systems in the Southeast. Dr. Lipson led initiatives to attract The article “700 Reginas” in this report will help you understand world-class physicians and get state-of-the-art equipment. the pressures faced by trauma centers – and the potential Under his leadership WellStar created a new cancer program, a life-saving benefi ts of enhancing the system. women’s center, an open-heart surgery program, and built a $68 million, 84-bed patient care tower. The spirit of Dr. Lipson… the work of our Hospitals of the Year... the campaign to save, strengthen and streamline CON... and Many Alliance hospitals perform in ways that would make the effort to develop a statewide trauma system exemplify how Dr. Lipson proud. But we focus in this report on the community hospitals and the Alliance are changing the face of achievements of four – the Alliance Hospitals of the Year. They healthcare in Georgia. excelled because of creativity, a willingness to take risks and old-fashioned teamwork. But I think that the ingredient that One thing that won’t change, however, is the Alliance’s sets them apart is perseverance: a quality that Newt Gingrich quarter-century-old commitment to advance healthcare policies has defi ned as “the hard work you do after you get tired of designed to provide all Georgians with access to quality doing the hard work you already did.” healthcare at reasonable costs. We also focus in this Annual Report on a pair of issues – Sincerely, Certifi cate of Need and a statewide trauma system – that test the perseverance of Alliance hospitals. The 2007 General Assembly is expected to make a number of decisions on these issues that will have a dramatic impact on healthcare in Georgia Monty M. Veazey for decades to come. President, Georgia Alliance of Community Hospitals 1 Profi le: “Hot” Thomas Occupation: Purveyor of Fine Bar-B-Que, Stroke Survivor and Volunteer for St. Mary’s Health Care System “Stamping Out Stroke” program in Athens, Georgia Restaurant owner Hot Thomas suffered a serious stroke in April 2006. After spending four days in the St. Mary’s Hospital Critical Care Unit, Hot was transferred to the hospital’s rehab center, where he spent three weeks. Getting over his stroke was a challenging experience for the former Oconee County farmer, but he says his experience in the St. Mary’s rehab center was the only time he ever enjoyed being in a hospital. And he was determined to give back by volunteering for the “Stamping Out Stroke” program. 2 The Changing Face of HEALTHCARE GEORGIA’S COMMUNITY HOSPITALS AT THEIR BEST Despite pressure to do more with less, Georgia’s community hospitals survived 2006. Indeed, many excelled by developing new fi nancial and operating models that changed the face of healthcare in our state. In an effort to eradicate stroke in its quality. We are committted to continuing to raise the bar for service area, St. Mary’s Health Care healthcare in our region.” System enlisted someone who could St. Mary’s also ranked as the number one hospital in Georgia bulldog the cause throughout Athens - with a perfect score of 100 - on the Partnership for Health and Accountability’s Relative Hospital Quality Index for care and 14 surrounding counties. delivered in 2005. This year the hospital opened the region’s fi rst inpatient hospice And for the past three years, Cheryl Holderfi eld, the hospital’s house, to provide care for hospice patients who cannot remain stroke certifi cation coordinator, has done just that. at home. “St. Mary’s is a leader in stamping out stroke,” Holderfi eld Yet, stroke remains a key area of emphasis for the hospital. For says, citing lunch and learns, school visits and quarterly Holderfi eld, stroke prevention and care have a personal and community education programs as examples of St. Mary’s professional emphasis. Her father suffered his fi rst stroke while prevention

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