Hospital makes shift to public trust facility

Great People Great Service Great Care

Hospital makes shift to public trust facility

CEO: I see my bosses in aisles at Wal-Mart

October 22, 2007

By Keith Purtell - Phoenix Staff Writer

WAGONER - In an era where most public hospitals are being acquired by corporations, city leaders in Wagoner decided to paddle upstream.

Wagoner Community Hospital became a public trust facility in October of 2006.

Jimmy Leopard, 46, chief executive officer since March of this year, described the difference between his corporate jobs as CEO at a hospital in Hope, Ark., and COO at a hospital in Lufkin, Texas.

"At those other hospitals, my bosses would fly in on a jet, be there for a day, then fly back to corporate headquarters," he said. "Here, I see my bosses up and down the aisles at Wal-Mart. This is a new experience for me. This is truly local."

The hospital is one of Wagoner's larger employers, with 175 people and a $7.2 million annual payroll. The hospital is licensed for 100 beds, with several of those in its mental health unit. It generates an estimated $80,000 per year in sales tax.

Hillcrest HealthCare held a lease on Wagoner Community Hospital until 2004, when Ardent Health Services purchased the lease. After the lease expired in 2006, the hospital considered new corporate management before deciding to become independent.

Leopard said there have been four reasons the move was successful:

"We had to solidify our management/governance structure. We've been working to develop our board and have that good governance/management team that can work through easy and tough issues. We've extended that beyond the walls of the hospital to garner the support of the city council. We've been working closely with the city council to keep them informed about how we're doing. I think we've gotten good support from the council here, and those council members in turn support and promote the hospital among their constituents in their wards."

"I had an idea that there were certain productivity levels that we should be able to run in a hospital this size. To validate that, we also did comparisons with Quorum Health Resources (to create) benchmarks for hospitals our size. We came up with productivity and expense level targets that were implemented in the organization, and we were able to selectively identify some opportunities to reduce cost. We did in a way that was very methodical, and we tried to do it in a way that would not disrupt patient care or morale."

"One of the things was to look for opportunities to grow business back as well. So we have physician recruitment initiatives underway. We've been able to add some new services; we have a new sleep lab, we started a new pulmonary rehabilitation program, and we've been able to start some outpatient general and orthopedic surgery programs. We've seen significant growth in emergency room visits, significant growth in outpatient services, and growth in our mental health unit services."

"We needed to secure some mechanism for permanent financing. We had some debt when the hospital was taken back from Ardent, and we were having to pay a high interest rate on it. We were able to refinance that through First Bank and Trust here in town. That was a milestone, because it was a public vote with the city council, and it did require Wagoner Public Works backing to secure the note. To me, it was a huge vote of confidence on their part to support the board here and the medical institution in this community."

Leopard, who moved to Oklahoma with his wife Kelly and daughter Lauren Beth, said there are more challenges ahead.

"We have to continue to recruit physicians," he said. "And a lot of people are asking us to do whatever it takes to get into some managed health care plans that we are currently excluded from."

Jeff Hamilton, secretary for the Wagoner Hospital Trust Authority, said he was optimistic about adding skilled staff. They are in the process of recruiting a full-time surgeon and creating an internist position.

"We have a new CFO beginning soon," he said. "This particular lady (Kathy Frost) is coming from a large medical group, which is why we were so happy she applied for the job. She has experience working with a large number of doctors, so we are kind of excited about her being there."

Hamilton said the hospital has never operated at a loss, not even at its leanest times.

"We were expecting a slow time during summer, but it's a compliment to Jimmy and all the staff that they were busy and things went well," he said. "What we wanted all along was to ensure people here in town they could get emergency and urgent care."

Like Leopard, Hamilton wants access to more managed health care plans.

"CommunityCare, which is a major state provider, has signed an exclusivity clause with Capella Healthcare (now leasing nearby Muskogee Regional Medical Center)," he said. "They are not allowing us to see patients. We're talking with our legislators about that, because we need health care for our town, and it's not real fair for our town and those people to drive 25 miles away to see a doctor."

Meredith Zehr, director Wagoner Chamber of Commerce, said the time of transition to local control created some anxiety.

"I'm sure we were all a little apprehensive," she said. "We didn't want to lose the hospital."

Zehr said the hospital has a dual role in the city's internal dynamics.

"It's very important to the Wagoner community," she said. "We have to have emergency care; there are a large number of visitors to the lake, and sometimes accidents happen. We need somewhere to rush them. So, the hospital has both the health function and is a part of the economy."

Zehr said many people don't know the hospital has state-of-the-art equipment. She also pointed out that 14.7 percent of Wagoner's population is age 60 or older.

"We are a retirement community, so the hospital is very important to them," she said. "We also have a lot of young families because we are a family-oriented town."

Source: Muskogee Phoenix
http://www.muskogeephoenix.com/archivesearch/local_story_295011022.html