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| Athens Regional Medical Center: Close to Home |
| Hospital Systems | |
| Written by Kristine Ellis | |
| Monday, 01 October 2007 | |
 Athens Regional Medical Center thrives in rural Tennessee by not trying to be all things to all patients.  John Workman, CEO “Being a financially successful small hospital in a rural environment is a tremendous accomplishment in this day and age, and I’m proud of this hospital and the employees who make it work,” said John Workman, CEO. The medical center got a big boost in 2001 when it was sold by Hospital Corporation of American (HCA) to LifePoint Hospitals. At the time, the HCA system comprised more than 350 hospitals, most of them large and urban. LifePoint had 21 hospitals, all small, all set in rural environments. “As part of the HCA system, we were, frankly, small fish in a big pond having to compete against large urban hospitals with greater capital needs than the typical small rural hospital. With LifePoint, which now has about 50 hospitals, we are bigger fish in a smaller pond,” Workman said. Workman and his team are leveraging the hospital’s new status to target specific gaps in local medical care. “There are things we won’t ever do—we’re small. But working with our doctors, we are identifying the things that we can do as well as an urban hospital and figuring out how we can make them available close to home for our community,” he said. Within the last year, ARMC has constructed a new medical office building as well as a new emergency department. The old ED is being renovated to house a new outpatient surgery center, and a new women’s center is in the planning stages. Both centers will include everything necessary to provide complete specialized care. ARMC has also made technology improvements in recent years, including upgrading its imaging department with a freestanding MRI and a 64-slice CT scanner, and a new PACS enables physicians to receive radiology reports and images via their office computers. “We are making sure that our physicians, especially our surgeons, have all the tools they need,” Workman said. Physician recruitment is also being done to fill in gaps in local service. For instance, the hospital recruited a neurologist, the first in the community, and is looking for another hospitalist to fully staff that program, which launched a few years ago. Other primary care physicians and specialists have been brought in as well, bringing the number of active physicians from about 33 in 2000 to 45 today. Many of the improvements intentionally strengthen ARMC’s outpatient diagnostics capabilities. The hospital is heavily dependent on outpatient services. Although it is licensed for 118 beds, its average daily census is around 30. Workman is therefore pleased to see numbers that support recent improvements. “Since 2000, our overall admissions have grown by 33% and the number of outpatients has grown consistently. Emergency visits were 18,000 in 2000, and this year will probably hit 25,000, while deliveries have grown by 35%,” he said. There have been challenges, of course. A physician-owned surgery center opened in Athens in 2003, drawing from the same primary service area of about 52,000 people. ARMC’s marketshare of that service area is about 47%. The hospital also took a hit when major changes were made to the state’s Medicaid program, TennCare, last year, resulting in about 190,000 people being dropped from the program. “For us, it meant an increase of about $2.3 million in bad debt because many of those who were dropped became self-pay. It put a lot of pressure on the system, but we’ve been successful in managing through it,” Workman said. Physician recruitment is another issue, although one mitigated somewhat by the relatively close proximity of both Chattanooga and Knoxville, only an hour’s drive respectively in each direction along Interstate 75. “We are not totally isolated, but it is still a constant challenge. You have to find the right person who enjoys a small town atmosphere, and that weeds out a lot of candidates,” Workman said. Workman joined ARMC as CEO in 1997. With the transition in ownership and turnover in various middle management positions since, he has put together a management team he considers top notch. “I’m not a micro-manager. I see my role as more of a thoughtful coach who thinks long-term to make the best decisions for the hospital. I have people around me who complement my personality, so when you put the two together, you have a well-rounded team,” he said. With 275 employees, ARMC is one of Athens’ major employers and its ninth largest taxpayer. Workman is well aware of the value and corresponding responsibility of ARMC’s role in the community. “We really are taking care of friends and family, so it becomes more personal, which I think is an asset for us. We provide a personal touch that maybe a larger organization can’t,” Workman said. “I constantly remind our employees that the people who come to us are here because they are either sick or hurting, so it behooves us to treat them with compassion and kindness. I think providing comfort to those in need is a great calling. To see that done here every day makes it a great joy to come to work,”he said. Kristine Ellis is a freelance writer based in Helena, Montana. She can be contacted at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it |
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