Passavant Area Hospital: Preparing for the Future - Health Executive - Red Coat Publishing - Inside Healthcare

The base of any hospital’s success lies in its administration’s ability to accept change and look for improvements. For Illinois-based Passavant Area Hospital, making adjustments not only secures its place in the healthcare world today, but also gives it an edge for the challenges of the future.

Chester Wynn, President and CEO

“Right now, as with many hospitals, our biggest challenge moving forward will revolve around reimbursement,” said Chester Wynn, president and CEO. “In the last three years, we’ve been fortunate to have a hospital assessment program that’s brought our hospital $2.7 million extra each year for the Medicaid program. But the program expires in July.”

The state of Illinois and the Illinois Hospital Association are working on a replacement plan, but the results are yet to be determined. As the hospital nears its fiscal year-end, its balance sheet is in solid shape, but, said Wynn, “It won’t take too many years of inadequate reimbursement for us to go in a negative position. However, we have projects and initiatives in the works to solidify our position.”

Facility facelift
For a few years, Passavant has been undergoing a facelift. The 97-bed acute care facility began by remodeling its laboratory and imaging departments and updating its HVAC systems. On the surgical side, the hospital moved its ambulatory surgery department to the same floor as its OR suites with a 21,000-square-foot addition. At the same time, the hospital’s OR suites underwent a separate remodeling, increasing the number of suites from six to seven and adding two endo-scopy suites.

Moving the ambulatory surgery department to the hospital’s first floor presented an opportunity to move the cardiopulmonary department to the second floor, giving nurses, physicians, and patients more space for comfort and efficiency. The ambulatory surgery department is still under construction, with a waiting room completed and a pre-admission screening room to be moved to the first floor.

“We upgraded the lab for better flow, and in the imaging department, we upgraded the equipment and remodeled the waiting room to improve convenience for our patients,” said Wynn. “We’re about to begin the next big stage of the remodeling project: the construction of an addition to house a new ED.”

The ED was renovated in 1967, and at the time, the hospital saw an average of 7,500 visits per year. By 2007, that number had grown to 30,000. The ED construction will double the size of the department to 25,000 square feet, and, after opening the new area, the current ED will receive a facelift. The $16.5 million project is awaiting approval by the Illinois Department of Public Health and has already passed its CON approval. Wynn hopes to break ground on the project by May and expects it to be completed by 2010.

Relationship remodel
Although the majority of the remodeling was done to enhance patient flow and efficiency, Wynn said, in part, the expansion of the emergency and operating departments could help increase patient volumes. One thing he believes will aid the hospital in making up any potential reimbursement deficits is the remodeling of Passavant’s relationship with its medical staff.

Over the past few years, through retirement or illness, a few of the hospital’s administrators have been replaced, including its CFO and CNO/COO. The biggest thing new administrators have added, aside from a fresh perspective, is the restructuring of the hospital’s strategic planning.

“Our strategic planning process has become a lot more participative. We have more involvement with the medical staff, the board of directors, and our staff, from department heads down,” Wynn said. “We now have an evolving, dynamic strategic plan.”

Passavant is in the second year of developing its strategic plan collaboratively. According to Wynn, the plan has become a living document and a key in strengthening the hospital’s relationship with its medical staff. “The fact that we’ve asked our staff to participate has improved both our employee survey scores and our physician survey scores,” he said. “Press Ganey had seen few institutions with so much improvement in such a short period.”

The hospital also recently lost two of its surgeons, but since improving the relationship with its physicians (many of whom are involved in the recruiting and hiring process), Passavant has recruited two surgeons and two ophthalmologists to start this spring. The hospital encourages its physicians to talk to recruits, letting them know about the benefits of working at Passavant as well as finding out if the recruits will fit into the hospital’s culture.

“We get a good feel for the physicians because we want them to want to come here, but we also want them to come here because they’d be a good fit for us,” Wynn said. “There are a couple of other physician groups that service our town, and the recruits may come to work for them. We aren’t pushy one way or the other. We give them the option.”

While the hospital and administration awaits its reimbursement fate, Wynn is confident the independent hospital’s commitment to its community will see it through any hard times ahead. “We hope adding new surgeons will generate additional revenue, and we’ve looked at adding some smaller programs such as hyperbarics to our wound center. But as a rural hospital, what will see us through in the future will be the bread-and-butter services. We need to make sure we have the right number of surgeons and the right number of family physicians. We want to have a good mix so we can continue to serve our patients and thrive.”

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