HJBR Sep/Oct 2019

dialogue 14 SEP / OCT 2019 I  Healthcare Journal of baton rouge   Chief Editor Smith W. Hartley What does it mean to be a Catholic/Franciscan health system? How are things done differently? Dr. Richard Vath  Our Catholic faith and the mission to serve given to us by our found- ers, the Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady, guide everything we do. While most of our operations are similar to non-Catho- lic health systems, what separates us first is our Catholic identity and our adherence to the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church and the Ethical Religious Directives. As part of that, we place a high value on the sanc- tity of life from conception to natural death. We alsomake business decisions differently. Our guide is our mission to serve thosemost in need, whether that need be financial, in spirit, or a number of other social issues. We place high value on financial sustainability and smart growth and strategy, but when in conflict, our mission trumps competi- tion every time. Whether it was building an emergency room in North Baton Rouge to provide access to life-saving care, acquiring what is nowOur Lady of theAngels in Bog- alusa, or building a new children’s hospital, these are examples of decisions that were not guided solely by the competitive land- scape, but rather by our mission to serve. Editor Can you give us an overview of health and healthcare in Louisiana? Dr. Vath  Louisiana is known for being at the bottom of the good lists and top of the bad ones. Our course correction starts by rec- ognizing that we have a large portion of our population living below the poverty line that is in desperate need of access to the full con- tinuumof care. Wemust focus on being able to provide the right care, at the right place, at the right time. Our communities across the state cur- rently have a shortage of primary care pro- viders for those most vulnerable among us. Medicaid expansion led to greater access to coverage, but we are still facing a shortage of access points.This leads to a higher-than- necessary, more expensive emergency room utilization. Another issue that is receiving increasing amounts of attention is popu- lation health management. We are laser- focused on this with our clinically integrated network, Health Leaders Network. We cur- rently provide care for over 120,000 covered lives, and our focus is on working with pro- viders to increase the quality of care while reducing overall cost. As a state, if we are able to increase access to the full contin- uum of care and place more emphasis on value-based care and population health, we will see the overall health of our state begin to change trends in the right direction, and the cost of care for everyone will decrease as a result. Editor How is FMOL best positioned to meet the needs of people of Louisiana? Dr. Vath  Our health system is blessed with a wide geographic spread across the state of Louisiana andMississippi. We also have lon- gevity in eachmarket, having served in Loui- siana for more than 100 years. As a result of that commitment to our communities, we understand the nuances and know where the opportunities are in each tomake a posi- tive impact. Our exceptional care has also allowed us to have the best and brightest tal- ent in the state on our team to do this impor- tant work. Every teammember is dedicated to living our mission and making our com- munities healthier for generations to come. We are not only attracting top-tier talent to work at our health system, but we are developing them right here in Louisiana. Whether it’s through our nationally recog- nized graduatemedical education programs or at our university, Franciscan Missionar- ies of Our Lady University, we are educating the next generation of healthcare workers. Finally, we have been focused over the last several years on becoming amore integrated health system to better meet the needs of our communities, and have already begun to see the fruits of those efforts. In 2017, we were a $1.7 billion system and today we are at $3 billion.That’s a direct result of smart growth, operational excellence, and the relentless pursuit of excellence in all that we do. Editor What are some of the biggest chal- lenges in running a large health system? Dr. Vath Whenmanaging a large health sys- tem, each day presents new and very unique challenges that our talented team work to overcome and meet head on. In an organi- zation such as ours that spans such a large geography and has more than 20,000 team members in various roles, maintaining cul- ture across our markets and keeping our mission in front of us becomes a daily focus. Like somany in the healthcare industry, we also see an issue in access to talent to meet growth needs. We have high expectations for each team member, and that’s been a driv- ing force behind our investment in graduate medical education and our university, FranU, to help develop that talent pool. Another challenge that is no stranger to our health system is the ever-changing world of healthcare financing. In Louisiana, as I said earlier, the high number of people who cannot afford access to quality health- care forces health systems and the state to find unique ways to properly fund vital ser- vices. We are proud to partner with the state to care for those most in need in several of our markets, and it’s that continued coop- eration that will impact long term positive change. Finally, two challenges we have begun to confront in recent years is how we absorb the pace of change in the healthcare indus- try and absorb the pace of growth in our own health system. Each requires its own unique strategies and level of focus to stay a step ahead as national politics and regional market dynamics drive changes at all levels of the industry. Despite the chal- lenges, I have no doubt that our ministry is ready and prepared for what the future holds in each of the communities we serve. Editor How does FMOL specifically deal with systematic hospital quality issues, such as medication errors, MRSA, and other medical and operational issues?