Western Missouri Medical Center board votes to approve new mission statement [The Daily Star-Journal, Warrensburg, Mo.]

July 31--WARRENSBURG -- The Western Missouri Medical Center board approved a new mission statement and revised performance pillars recommended by consultants working on the hospital's 2014 strategic plan.

David Blish and Nathan Mowery of Navigant presented a plan update and a required community health needs assessment to the board Friday.

Mowery recommended revising the mission statement to reflect the hospital's goal "to be the regional preferred provider of exceptional health care services" through the pillars of excellence "year after year."

The concept, he said, is for the hospital to become a regional provider through affiliation with other area hospitals "to improve the health care status of the region."

Hospital CEO Susan Stiles said the hospital has built a patient tower with capacity to grow, an expanded obstetrics wing and is building a medical office building.

The goal, she said, is to be a regional facility "and to send to the city only those things we will never do," such as brain surgery, which requires specialized equipment.

"We don't want to lose the community hospital feeling," Stiles said.

Board member Tim Murdock asked if there is a disadvantage to partnering with St. Luke's Hospital.

"Obviously, there's an economic component to the partnership," Mowery said, "but they seem to be far more dialed in to being a tertiary campus. They seem to be far more willing to collaborate than dominate."

Stiles said the hospital can offer more services but still refer patients to St. Luke's that cannot be treated locally.

Mowery said St. Luke's strategy is "hub and spokes."

"They're very open to developing spokes for primary care," Mowery said.

Stiles said patients sent to St. Luke's for surgeries can recover at the Warrensburg hospital.

The revised pillars include the goals of a 40 percent share of inpatients in the primary service area and 50 percent share of the outpatient ancillary market.

Mowery said the goal "was dialed back from 85 percent" to reflect "reality." He said the facility moved up from 38.7 percent as the preferred hospital in 2008 to 38.8 percent in 2012.

Other goals are a 50 percent "very satisfied" rating from the medical staff; a less than 10 percent turnover rate in employment; and improvement in quality measures to 96.1 percent.

Blish reported that a summit of health care providers showed obesity, inactivity and heart disease top the list of community health risks, which can be mitigated if people "get moving."

He said the focus should be on early detection and lifestyle changes.

The number of uninsured and underinsured people are a concern, he said, as is lack of access to mental health professionals, inadequate social support systems, lack of dental care for the indigent and non-medical senior services.

The Missouri Health Insurance Exchange will resolve the problem of uninsured people, Blish said.

"You need to do some things to get prepared," he said.

The hospital should defer leadership in mental health and social support issues to others, he said.

"Your approach should be to support others," Blish said.

Dental and social services "are outside the scope of services" at the hospital, which is not obligated to address those issues, he said.

Blish said the paradigm in health care is changing from treatment of illness to prevention and keeping people out of the hospital.

Stiles said that could include expanding wellness screenings, such as 3-D sonograms and full-body scans that people now pay cash to obtain.

"We have to look at how we can provide those," she said.

Stiles said Cerner Corp. "did a whole initiative around wellness" with proven benefits to the corporation.

"That's why we're seeing hospitals diversify and less focus on acute care," Mowery said, and more interaction with community partners on action plans.

Plan implementation is set for Oct. 1, Blish said.

___

(c)2013 The Daily Star-Journal (Warrensburg, Mo.)

Visit The Daily Star-Journal (Warrensburg, Mo.) at www.dailystarjournal.com

Distributed by MCT Information Services