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Swedish Hospital Growing Despite Health Care Shakeout
By Don Meyer
CHICAGO, IL (June 7, 2002) - Swedish Covenant Hospital not only is surviving the
enormous financial pressures that have forced the closings of numerous
hospitals in the greater Chicago area, the facility is growing and doing
quite well.
Swedish Covenant Hospital is operated by Covenant Ministries of Benevolence
as part of the Evangelical Covenant Church with administrative offices in
Chicago.
A Thursday Chicago Tribune article describes Swedish Covenant
Hospital as "the largest stand-alone inpatient facility left in the area"
that is "growing amid the shakeout.
"Not only does Swedish Covenant Hospital have no plans to merge or sell to
a larger player, the facility has been expanding and adding services as
operating margins have improved in the last two years," the article
continues.
The growth pattern at Swedish Covenant stands in stark contrast to a half
dozen competing hospitals that have closed or are in the process of
closing, including Advocate Ravenswood Medical Center to the south,
Edgewater Medical Center to the east and Grant Hospital, which is
finalizing its sale to a Denver-based for-profit company.
So what makes Swedish so different?
Most would look at the numbers, looking for that magical business formula
that others have yet to discover. Swedish has added new programs - the new
open-heart surgery unit, the expanding and popular birth center. It has
added new physicians - 75 over the past 24 months with 550 now on the
medical staff. Another 70 health care workers have joined the team during
the past six months - most coming from the other failed hospitals.
The inpatient census has jumped nine percent. Outpatient registrations are
up 10 percent. Revenues and operating margins are expected to rise this
year for the second consecutive year. And so the numbers go.
But, if you want to know what is really driving the positive movement at
Swedish, you won't find it in the numbers. It's the people part of the
equation, according to Swedish CEO Mark Newton.
"To a large extent, there's a sense of focus and mission and purpose,"
Newton said of the hospital's employees. "They see they are on a winning
team within a challenging environment. People are enthusiastic about the
positive spirit . . . and are trying to be part of fulfilling the mission
of the institution."
The challenges are significant. Government reimbursements provide one
glimpse of the enormity of the problem facing medical providers today.
"Medicaid in the State of Illinois pays 75 percent of the cost of medical
care," Newton observed. "If it costs $1 to provide the needed medical
services - and often to underserved people - we're only reimbursed 75
cents," he said. "This contributes to the cost pressures. Medicaid also
delays its payments - they account for 20 percent of the accounts
receivable. That delays the cash flow.
"We have an increasing expense base, a declining revenue base and are
fulfilling the mission to people who can't pay," Newton concluded.
Reimbursement programs are not the only challenge. Hospitals face the same
escalation in the cost of pharmaceuticals as the average person does. The
more sophisticated levels of technology and medical services people now
require also increases the cost.
How, then, have the people at Swedish been able to make such an impact in
the face of such seemingly overwhelming challenges?
One key ingredient is the training that is under way to help all employees
understand not only the challenges, but to think about ways in which they
can become part of the solution. To date, approximately 850 of Swedish's
nearly 2,000 employees have completed the training.
"People really understand," Newton said in assessing the value of the
sessions. Employees have joined in the effort to streamline processes,
increase productivity, decrease expenses "and make difficult choices
because they feel part of fulfilling the mission," Newton stresses. "They
understand how they can be part of the solution and what they can do to
contribute. When they see the benefit, it works."
Copyright © 2008 The Evangelical Covenant Church. |
