JFK’S CEO says his hospital is “the valley’s best kept secret” [Public Record, The (Riverside, CA)]

It's been a year since Gary Honts moved to the Coachella Valley to take over the helm of JFK Memorial Hospital, one of two local hospitals owned by Tenet Healthcare Corporation of Dallas.

"What drew me here to the desert was pure business. (Tenet) asked me to come in and provide some interim leadership and develop a strategic plan for JFK as it moves into this new era of healthcare reform. The longer I was here the more interested I became in the hospital and made the decision to stay here," he said.

Honts was previously president and CEO of Creighton University Medical Center out of Omaha, Nebraska, an academic medical school and hospital.

Many of the business challenges facing the 158-bed hospital are the same as those confronting the majority of hospitals in the nation. "We're in a era that we've never seen before with healthcare reform. We're still trying to understand how some of these regulations will affect us. For example, you've got state exchanges that are supposed to be rolling out here very shortly... and it's just not a known product out there in the community. So you're going to have individuals that could gain access to insurance...and they're not aware of it. So getting that education out in the community is a huge challenge."

Getting more patients insured is a particularly big issue fox JFK. Honts estimated that about half of the patients visiting the hospital's emergency room either have no insurance or are paid by Medi-Cal. "I think most everyone understands Medi-Cal reimbursement doesn't cover the cost of care," he said.

Nevertheless, JFK remains a financially viable hospital. "To the credit of everyone at JFK - administrators and physicians - they've been able to make that extra (financial) burden of caring for the community work long term...and with healthcare reform, it's only going to get stronger."

Keeping up with the latest medical innovations is also a challenge for the industry. "For us, we certainly stay up-to-date with our technology in the focused areas that we're serving. But, you know, technology changes every two to three years - just like your iPhones, just like your cars - so making sure that you still have quality technology is our goal."

Honts says they're always looking for ways to reduce the cost of providing healthcare. "We're in every insurance product in the valley and we wouldn't be if we didn't have a good cost offering. We also are the exclusive provider, along with Desert Regional Medical Center, for all the Kaiser insurance products in the valley. So as they continue to look for ways to lower their costs, they wouldn't (contract) with someone to provide their patients care if we

didn't offer a cost-competitive product," he said. Desert Regional Medical Center, in Palm Springs, is JFK's sister Tenet-owned hospital.

"Supplies are changing all the time, too. So we work with our physicians in small groups to evaluate new and existing products to determine whether it has a use in our hospital and what that cost of use is versus the outcomes. On top of that, we have the strength of Tenet Healthcare behind us as we negotiate national contracts for new equipment like CT scanners, and large items like that, all the way down to the smallest supply."

In recent years, the concept of "health tourism" has emerged, Usually referring to patients seeking treatment in other countries where the cost of a major procedure is less expensive or simply unavailable here in the U.S. But increasingly, domestic hospitals like JFK are promoting themselves as a destination for certain kinds of elective procedures.

"During the high season we have little seminars that we'll advertise specifically to some of the part time residents here. We're also exploring how we can advertise in Canada to talk about the great products that we offer here at both hospitals. But word-of-mouth is the best marketing tool that we have and there are many local and Canadian residents that know about our (orthopedic products) and they tell their friends. So we kind of look at ourselves as a destination point for orthopedics specifically," said Honts.

Both JFK and Desert Regional Medical Center are likely to introduce new destination medicine marketing campaigns this fall, according to Richard A. Ramhoff, director of marketing. The hospitals have also had talks with the Greater Palm Springs Convention & Visitor's Bureau about co-marketing opportunities, but have not engaged in a formal partnership yet.

While hospitals like Eisenhower Medical Center are building hospital suites that resemble accommodations at a five star resort hotel, Honts says the national trend is to spend less on bricks & mortar. "What the customer is looking for is value and the quality of outcome," he said, adding that the growing number of less invasive surgical procedures means fewer days in a hospital bed.

Despite his aversion to investing in bricks & mortar, Honts is looking to establish a few urgent care centers around the valley to compete with Eisenhower's growing presence in the market. "We're looking at preliminarily in the mid- to east-side of the valley. I'm not at liberty to say where they're at or what stage we're at because we're still working on that strategy. I don't want to just put bricks and mortar up just to get our name out there. I want to make sure there's a value for the community." These urgent care centers may be co-branded with Desert Regional Medical Center.

Honts' overarching goal for JFK is to bring its recognition out of the shadows cast by the valley's two better-known community hospitals. "JFK is the best kept secret in the valley and I want to make sure the community knows what service and value JFK brings. There are not a lot of people that understand you have to go a long way to find a top 10 percent orthopedic program - and it's right here in their own backyard. The services that we offer are complimentary to Desert Regional Medical Center. We have some of the highest quality outcomes in the valley. We have people coming from all over the nation for our services, yet people in the valley don't understand the value we have," he said.