Advancement and Growth at Franciscan Alliance

Note: This was also published in the 2011 Quality & Innovation special section of The Times of Northwest Indiana newspaper.

The hospitals that serve Franciscan Alliance's Northern Indiana Region continue to be at the forefront of innovation, not only in their nationally and locally recognized provision of health care, but in management and fiscal practices that help us operate efficiently – and lead to growth.

That growth is evident in our recent acquisitions of Calumet Surgery Center of Munster and Hammond Clinic's three area locations.

Our latest advances in care are numerous. Examples include:

• Franciscan St. Anthony Health-Michigan City is scheduled to open a new, state-of-the-art Cancer Treatment Center next April. The 20,000-square-foot facility will combine the most advanced technologies. What's more, the hospital recently was recognized by the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancerwith an Outstanding Achievement Award.
• Franciscan St. Anthony Health will open a Chesterton Health and Emergency Center early next year that will include onsite laboratory, MRI and CT scans, primary care and 24-hour emergency coverage.    
• Franciscan St. Anthony Health-Crown Point recently opened a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Early next year, the hospital will open a 27,000-square-foot outpatient surgery center at its Franciscan Point health complex located along U.S. 231, near Interstate 65. In late fall, it is expected to open a revamped and relocated Radiology Oncology Department that will be the new home of a linear accelerator, which will make cancer treatment more efficient and effective.
• Franciscan St. Margaret Health-Dyer and Hammond just opened a Family Birthing Center at its Dyer Campus, in addition to the obstetrics unit at the Hammond Campus. It also offers what has been called the "quintessential" wound care center in the Chicago area – the Wound Healing and Prevention Institute. Its Bariatric Institute likewise offers unsurpassed care.
• Franciscan Physicians Hospital in Munster is the first in Indiana to purchase the Trabectome minimally invasive glaucoma treatment program that provides better treatment through reduced risk and cost effectiveness. It likewise offers a new catheterization laboratory that provides the latest equipment for interventional cardiology and endovascular procedures.

Our advancements are made possible by employing the smartest and most efficient business practices, needed more than ever with the challenges brought by health care reforms that threaten the very existence of some hospitals.

Enter Lean and Six Sigma, a nationally recognized set of business and management practices we have followed since 2005 to help eliminate defects in processes and assure utmost efficiency. Our advancements are too numerous to list, but Dr. Paul Strange, Franciscan Alliance corporate vice president of quality, sums it up well: "Lean and Six Sigma models for process improvement and elimination of waste in health care mean improvements in the quality of our care, making our systems safer and cost effective."

Yes, the changes brought by latest health care reforms present the greatest challenges we have faced.

But our culture of care, advancement and working as efficiently as possible, will prove invaluable in weathering the storm.

Franciscan Alliance's vision will prove vital to its physician and patient services in face of reform

Being proactive in any endeavor is a wise approach. As they say, the best defense is a good offense.

The changing face of health care, brought on by the new reform law, requires Franciscan Alliance's Northern Indiana hospitals to be diligent and better prepared than ever to meet tough challenges that are knocking on the door and whose arrival, while they may not be welcome in many respects, must be greeted with foresight and fortitude.

And so, proactive we are in our approach to what lies ahead. Two recent examples reflect that vision.

Franciscan Alliance is forming an accountable care organization, a model designed to improve patient care, reduce medical costs and enhance delivery of health care – all vital components as reforms progress nationwide.

Kevin Leahy, Franciscan Alliance president and chief executive officer, explains it best.

"The ACO we are creating benefits patients by giving them more of a role in directing their own care, offering them more incentives for disease prevention and pursuing healthier lifestyles, and significantly reducing duplicative medical tests."

Franciscan Alliance has 13 hospital campuses in Illinois and Indiana that provide more than 2.9 million outpatient visits and more than 100,000 inpatient discharges each year.

The ACO model encourages such organizations as hospitals, physician practices and insurance providers to collaborate to help reduce medical care costs.

Our vision and sense of cooperation also has led to an expansion of our health care network through a new partnership with physicians of the Hammond Clinic.

The clinic, with locations in Munster and St. John, has served Northwest Indiana for almost 60 years. This new venture also will boost our number of providers and access points.

Hammond Clinic's 60-plus doctors will complement Franciscan Alliance hospitals' physicians, which will bring the number of employed and overall medical staff physicians serving Northwest Indiana to more than 1,250.

A partnership between us and the Hammond Clinic has been evident for years in the relationship between it and Franciscan Physicians Hospital in Munster and Franciscan St. Margaret Health-Dyer and Hammond.

This was a logical step, given the integration necessary to improve quality, control costs and meet head-on the challenges posed by health care reform.

Franciscan Alliance has faith that its "be prepared" attitude will pay dividends in terms of services and efforts to control costs.

Most importantly, our vision looks out for the welfare of our patients, who for years to come likewise will face challenges caused by reform changes.

We're all in this together. Teamwork, caring and compassion will go hand in hand as we travel the sometimes bumpy road change poses for us.

Our aim is to make this journey as smooth as possible, for all concerned.

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Expect these findings to be challenged by vested interests in the quality improvement establishment who will  find them threatening.

Florida Federal Judge Rules Obamacare Unconstitutional

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Reaction to the President's State of the Union Address

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