It hasn’t been easy, but St. Luke’s Hospital president Dan Wakeman is more than optimistic one year after the Maumee hospital was forced to leave the ProMedica system and operate as an independent facility.
“One year behind us and we’re stronger than we’ve been in a long time,” he said.
Now on its own, St. Luke’s is developing an identity centered around community-focused and efficient care, Mr. Wakeman said.
The two entities separated July 1, 2016, following a May, 2015, order from the Federal Trade Commission that ProMedica unwind its merger with St. Luke’s after a five-year court battle to keep the hospital in the system. The FTC said the 2010 merger severely had limited competition in the Toledo area and would drive up prices.
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New or enhanced clinical services at St. Luke’s are helping focus on care options most needed by a patient base that includes a large number of older adults, Mr. Wakeman said. Of the 17 new physicians to join the hospital, 10 are surgeons, including two specializing in breast and retinal surgery.
“Let’s look at what the community is looking for us to provide and [ask], ‘Can we provide it well?’ ” Mr. Wakeman said of their philosophy. “If we do that, we’ll be OK.”
By the end of 2017, St. Luke’s surgeons will perform craniotomy procedures again for the first time in more than a decade, Mr. Wakeman said. It’s one way he sees a shift in hospital operations that over time will mean fewer inpatient cases but more high acuity patients.
The hospital opened a breast health center and a chest pain unit to better diagnose and treat patients coming in with potential heart attack symptoms. A hybrid surgery suite is now on target to open in late 2018 or early 2019.
Mr. Wakeman also is looking toward the next generation of doctors. The hospital has a pending application with the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education to form a family medicine residency program, with hopes of welcoming new residents July, 2018. St. Luke’s had a family medicine residency program from 2007 to 2014, but it was dropped while the hospital was in the ProMedica system.
Financial concerns have played a major role in the effort toward independence, Mr. Wakeman said.
Describing 2016 as a “break-even” year, Mr. Wakeman said 2017 has been more financially challenging because of one-time costs associated with rebuilding “back room services” such as electronic health records, information technology, billing, and a legal department.
“In 2017, we’re going to run a negative operational balance primarily because of the one-time expenses,” he said. “It’s not the case of revenue shortfall; it’s having to spend a lot of money to get back up on our feet for that. We planned for that, we had the cash reserves to do it.”
He anticipates a “2 or 3 percent” shortfall for the about $245 million operational budget this year, but a return to positive margins in 2018.
The separation required a lot of work in a short amount of time, said Keith Burmeister, vice president and chief relations officer for the hospital.
“I think the biggest change is that people have found their independence,” he said. “We understand that to be successful we have to depend on ourselves and our group has been able to do things in a short period of time most people wouldn’t think could be done.”
Mr. Wakeman said he is proud of hospital staff for doing “the heavy lift” and extra work during the transition, and credited ProMedica for its support during that time.
“They understood that we’re going to have to work together in the community going forward, so therefore having a collaborative relationship longer term is just better for the community,” he said.
Contact Lauren Lindstrom at llindstrom@theblade.com, 419-724-6154 or on Twitter @lelindstrom.
First Published July 22, 2017, 4:00 a.m.
