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 Hospital Plans for the Future - Part I
(Posted January 2006)
By Ken Bank, President and CEO of Northfield Hospital
"Within the next five years, Northfield Hospital will become a regional medical destination supported by referrals from a system of primary care clinics. These referrals will provide the patient base to support a broader range of full-time specialty practices, ranging from ENT and urology to cardiology and oncology, that are centered in Northfield.”
That is the vision our board of directors has for Northfield Hospital.
We began to lay the foundation for achieving it two and a half years ago, when we moved to a new 60-acre campus located along North Avenue. Within six months of moving to the new hospital facility, we took the next step by embarking on a two-year long process of implementing a completely automated medical record system throughout the organization. At a capital cost of approximately $2.5 million, we will have automated every aspect of both our clinical and business support functions This new system, which profoundly affects the day-to-day work of every physician and every employee in our organization, will significantly improve the coordination of patient information and the maximization of patient safety across all of our services.
The new medical campus and the comprehensive information system provide the foundation for what has now become our strategic focus for the next several years – our vision to expand medical services both in and around Northfield. In order to successfully bring this vision to reality, there are certain key things -- our Critical Success Factors – that must be accomplished.
First, Northfield Hospital must become recognized as a regional medical destination. It is likely not a surprise to anyone that Northfield is directly in the path of significant population growth moving south from the Twin Cities. Farmington and Lakeville to our north and Lonsdale to our west are among some of the fastest growing communities in the state. These communities are generally underserved medically. Many of their residents already come to us for care, and we are seeing that trend escalate ever more rapidly year after year. Northfield offers a low-stress, easy-access alternative to the large medical centers that are growing more and more inaccessible as traffic volumes to the north increase.
We are already getting a glimpse of the growth to come. In 2004, our expense budget was about $34 million and we had a full-time equivalent staff of just over 300. This year, the operating budget will be just under $40 million and we will have a full-time equivalent staff of approximately 313. In 2006, we are projecting an operating budget of just under $50 million, and our staff is expected to grow to nearly 370 full-time equivalent employees, many of them in our new Clinics Division.
Our second Critical success Factor is to expand our physician base. This includes both primary care physicians like family practice, internal medicine, pediatrics and Ob/Gyn, as well as a broad array of physician specialists. Our efforts in this regard are focused on developing a new clinic facility on our main hospital campus, as well as clinics in several surrounding communities. I will talk more about these efforts in the future.
Our third Critical Success Factor is to maintain strong financial performance. Healthcare is a capital-intensive service. Facilities and equipment are very expensive and require constant updating to keep pace with the rapid technological advances that are going on in medicine. State-of-the-art facilities and equipment are also essential to the successful recruitment of physicians. Add to that the fact that healthcare is extremely labor intensive, requiring many employees who must possess unique certifications and licensures. Labor shortages are looming in the future for all organizations, none more so than providers of medical services, and the result is sure to be escalating wage and benefit expenses.
Finally, we must ensure that we are maximizing the quality and safety of care to patients. The implementation of our new electronic medical record system was a major step in this effort. We are also making a significant investment of time, energy and human resources in a number of very specific care improvement programs, all of which are aimed at providing the best and safest patient outcomes.
In additional columns over the next several weeks I would like to focus on Northfield Hospital’s efforts to grow its base of primary care physicians through the development of local and regional clinics and on our efforts to expand the range and scope of specialty services. Some of the most interesting developments in this area have to do with the partnerships that we are creating with other care providers, such as Surgical Specialists Professional Association, Orthopaedic & Fracture Clinic Professional Association, and Cannon Valley Clinic - Mayo Health System.
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