Casey Greene, market president for UnityPoint Health - Cedar Rapids, and Justin McDonald, director of St. Luke's Heart & Vascular Services, join Dr. Arnold to discuss St. Luke's recently receiving national recognition for the care its team provides and what it means for healthcare in our community.
Do you have a question about a trending medical topic? Ask Dr. Arnold! Submit your question and it may be answered by Dr. Arnold on the podcast!
Submit your questions at: https://www.unitypoint.org/cedarrapids/submit-a-question-for-the-mailbag.aspx
If you have a topic you'd like Dr. Arnold to discuss with a guest on the podcast, shoot us an email at stlukescr@unitypoint.org.
Casey Greene, market president for UnityPoint Health - Cedar Rapids, and Justin McDonald, director of St. Luke's Heart & Vascular Services, join Dr. Arnold to discuss St. Luke's recently receiving national recognition for the care its team provides and what it means for healthcare in our community.
Do you have a question about a trending medical topic? Ask Dr. Arnold! Submit your question and it may be answered by Dr. Arnold on the podcast!
Submit your questions at: https://www.unitypoint.org/cedarrapids/submit-a-question-for-the-mailbag.aspx
If you have a topic you'd like Dr. Arnold to discuss with a guest on the podcast, shoot us an email at stlukescr@unitypoint.org.
This is Live Well Talk on nationally recognized health care and Cedar Rapids. I'm Dr Dustin Arnold, chief Medical Officer at Union Point Health St Luke's Hospital. St Luke's was recently recognized as a top 100 hospital in the nation by Premier Incorporated. It was also nationally recognized this year by US News World Report and the American College of Cardiology for its commitment to heart care, reinforcing our status as Cedar Rapids Heart Hospital. Joining me today to discuss these honors and what it means for health care in our community is Casey Green, market President for Union Point Health, cedar Rapids, and Justin McDonald, director of St Luke's Heart and Vascular Services. Gentlemen, welcome Good to be here.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I think, the first question or topic to address is is this just a who's who in high school, where you pay some money and you get recognized, or is this a legitimately obtained recognition Casey?
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's a good question as you know, in health care there's many awards and accolades and you're exactly right. Some of those you pay to play. This is not one of those. This is the top 100. This is the big one. It's done by an independent organization, premier Incorporated, well known in health care.
Speaker 3:They have a large purchasing arm but also a large data analytics aspect as well. So yeah, independent organization, you don't pay to play, we don't pay to market this. This is done by that organization and it's the gold standard for awards for hospitals.
Speaker 1:And this is our ninth time that we've accomplished this.
Speaker 3:It's our ninth time since 2004, I believe, and the last time we received it was 2019. So nice to be back where we belong in terms of top 100.
Speaker 1:Did they award this during the pandemic? It's a good question.
Speaker 3:I don't know that they did actually, but I'm not positive on that.
Speaker 1:You wondered, I mean things were kind of skewed Right. Data had to been off as well. Well, speaking of data, what are they measuring?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so there's a lengthy process they go through. Obviously, as you would expect, it's quality patient outcomes, patient experience as well. So how patients feel about their care, several of the big aspects, but also length of stay, our operational throughput, as well as the financial aspects, so the cost of care as well. So pretty comprehensive in terms of the analysis done on this.
Speaker 3:And I think there's there's 3000 hospitals that are surveyed, reviewed as a part of this process. They look at public data in all cases, so fully transparent data, but 3000 are reviewed and obviously 100 make the list, so that's a pretty exclusive club.
Speaker 1:You know culture is kind of a buzzword, etc. But I think it's important and I know you guys do too. But you know culture is what we believe in, how we behave, yeah. So could you tell me how culture here at St Luke's perhaps gave us the fuel to achieve this award or the tools to accomplish it?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I want to. Probably the thing I'm most excited about in my new role is being a part of this team here at Cedar Rapids. As you said, dr Arnold, the culture makes a difference. We don't produce widgets, we're a service industry. The care that we provide, how we make those patients feel and, frankly, the outcomes of that care, is what's most important. So this is absolutely a reflection on the care we provide and our team members that we have here, including physicians, obviously. So everyone contributes to.
Speaker 3:You know, one aspect was patient satisfaction. Everybody in their role contributes to patient satisfaction, whether that's the individual cleaning the room, to the OR scrub that's involved with the surgery, to the discharge planning process. So everyone's involved with that and every team member should be proud of this as a top 100 award.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, I know, having been here since 2005,. Everybody, even the non-clinical areas, they understand that whatever they're doing, at some point that's affecting patient care, right? So if you're working the gift shop, you're touching patient care. Might be more steps to get to it, but it is, you know, and I think they carry that with them. It's never, you know, just not my job or someone else. You know a lot of ownership.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. I present to our orientees new team members every two weeks and the point I make with that group is no one will ever be faulted for taking that extra two minutes to spend with that patient to make sure they have everything they need. Yeah, Just taking that extra step. It's ingrained in our culture and that's why patients choose to come back to St Luke's.
Speaker 1:Is there a halo benefit for the community beyond? I mean, does this influence recruitment retention? Do you have any data on that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I don't have specific data on recruitment or retention, but it's certainly the pride that we have as an organization. I meet with team members regularly and rounding and continuously here. It's the culture we have here. It's the pride we have in our work, the quality we deliver from a community aspect. Top 100 is important. We're the only two hospitals in the state that received the top 100.
Speaker 2:Austin, mercy, austin, mercy, yep, you don't need to leave Cedar.
Speaker 3:Rapids to receive literally award-winning care. So that's something to be proud of as a community and community should be very confident in the care we deliver, that they don't need to travel to Minnesota or down 380. They can get that right here in Iowa. That's outstanding. Justin heart care.
Speaker 1:I mean you know, St Luke's has been the heart hospital Originally started open heart surgery 78, 77, somewhere in there.
Speaker 2:My dad was like in the top 10, the first 10, not the top 10, but the first 10, yeah he was.
Speaker 1:But we've been the heart hospital and that accolade for a lot of reasons. But kind of give your perspective on why do people say that.
Speaker 2:Well, I think, first and foremost, more patients choose St Luke's than any other Cedar Rapids hospital. So and I think that's important and that says something about the quality of care that we provide, the team members we have, the physicians we have, that people in the community are choosing us right. I think our experience that we have, as you've noted, the Open Heart Program starting in 1978, that's a big deal. Those volumes really matter, especially when you get into the more complex procedures such as a cardiac surgery. You want to go to the physician, not only the physician but the team that has that experience that sees that sort of volume right. It takes 10,000 reps to really master something, for example, and that's where you want to go if you're a patient. So we certainly have that in our favor. I think that we provide a kind of what I would call a higher level of more advanced cardiovascular care and I think, this is true of St Luke's just generally.
Speaker 2:Our specialty, capabilities and kind of something that St Luke's has hung its head on for quite some time is offering more specialized, complex procedures. Especially for a community hospital of our size, I think is somewhat unique. We see patients as well from a very large geographic area. And then, finally, I think it gets down to our team members and our physicians. We have outstanding cardiologists at the heart care clinic. We work very closely with the vascular surgeons, the interventional radiologists, cardiac surgery with Dr Whitey, and our team members are outstanding. So whether that's cath lab, ep lab, the open heart team, diagnostic cardiology, et cetera, et cetera, I personally would not want to go anywhere else because I know how dedicated, committed those team members are and how much they put into it and how much they care.
Speaker 1:Sometimes younger physicians will become board certified and then choose not to renew it Cause it's expensive, it's in its time consuming. And I always say them, provide them advice, to say this is a way, outside your own performance, to say that you pay attention and you're doing a good job if you're maintaining your board certification over time.
Speaker 1:Right, absolutely, and a lot of listeners might not understand, but hospitals do that as well. I mean, we have regulatory bodies etc. But particularly in cardiology and in American College of Surgery, you know they have accreditation. Tell us about what accreditation does our cardiology have? That's really saying hey, we're. Not only do we think we're good, but so do other people, and here's what we're doing.
Speaker 2:Right and actually it's timely because we were just, you know, recently recognized by US News and World Report for our involvement with the American College of Cardiology. And so the American College of Cardiology is sort of the premier professional organization for cardiology and they offer accreditation and they also offer what's called registries. We have two accreditations through the American College of Cardiology. One is we are a chest pain accredited center, the only chest pain center in Cedar Appeds, and we're actually at what they call sort of the platinum level of performance, which is the highest level of performance that you can be. So, and what that means is they look at our data and our outcomes and how we. The data says how we treat patients, and not only are we highest performing, but we've done it over a period of time, right it's, it's something that we've sustained and done. We're also TAVR accredited. So TAVR, those Transcatheter Aortic Valve replacements yeah, we did a couple.
Speaker 2:So they were the only TAVR accredited program in the state of Iowa and so you know certainly that that is something we're very committed to. And then, quickly, I would just note the registries are a big, you know, piece of that dedication and commitment to this is how we basically submit data and, as well as other hospitals nationally, it allows us to track our performance in a it's somewhat retrospective but pretty, you know, it's pretty fresh data that we can look at and really say, okay, how are we performing and compare ourselves to other best in class organizations so we know if we have opportunities for improvement. We take that extremely seriously and we have a number of registries that we participate in in, you know, all of our key kind of specialty areas really within cardiovascular.
Speaker 1:And it's I mean, I'm under the pressure it's not a requirement you have to participate in these registries. Absolutely. Some would do voluntarily to document our quality.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we do not, it's all voluntary, but it's extremely important. I mean, it's really valuable data, you know, and so we want to be very empirical in our outcomes and we stack up obviously very nicely compared to other organizations. So, talking about cardiac surgery, we're in the Society for Thoracic Surgery, you know registry. We have the chest pain registry, we have a kind of broader cath lab type registry, we have a watchman registry which is left atrial appendage occlusion, where the only hospitals you have is it provides watchmen, and then of course our kind of valve registry with TAVR and Mitra Clip and those things. And so again, we far and away participate in more of these programs than any of the any other hospital in the state. But again, we feel that's critical in maintaining our high level of performance.
Speaker 1:So it allows us to detect a problem and fix it a lot sooner. If there is a problem, absolutely Very quickly, yeah, that our continuous or goal of continuous improvement.
Speaker 3:Looking at that data, reviewing that data where do we need to do better and continuing to adjust our processes to have better outcomes. Yeah, 100%.
Speaker 1:What now? The picture of the crane? And you know, hospitals, hospitals have like three construction plants right the one they had, the one they have and the one they're going to Right, yeah, Right, I mean there's always. You know, some of the Piperal guys are like you know the banger since I've been here. But so tell us about what's going on with the heart expansion.
Speaker 2:Right. So there's three major phases with our heart expansion, and our expansion is really focused on the primarily focused on sort of the procedural areas and our capabilities. So the first phase of this project relates to our electrophysiology lab expansion. So we have one lab. Today we're adding a second lab, very, very important, because that's just a growing area and a growing area of need within the community. So we'll have two labs online here next summer, summer of 2024. So we're currently building that new lab. We'll have, you know, best in class sort of technology and systems in there.
Speaker 2:The second phase relates to vascular and interventional radiology and so again, we'll have expanded procedural capabilities in that area. But another nice feature is kind of consolidating our prep and recovery area into there as well. So it will enhance the care coordination that we can provide for the patients that receive those procedures. And then, lastly, is the hybrid operating room, which is really exciting because this is sort of the newest and greatest thing in terms of kind of operating rooms. Right, it's a very large space. It kind of combines the elements of your traditional operating room with sort of the imaging-based procedures that are primarily done within, you know, the cardiovascular space. So lots of multiple specialties will use this, you know. So it's quite an advanced area.
Speaker 2:So we're really excited for that, something that's, you know, sorely needed, I think, and will be a huge benefit for the community. So everything's going as planned and very well in terms of that project. So when is it completed? We anticipate having all the entirety of the project done at the very early part of 2025. So, yeah, as I mentioned, the EP project will be done summer of next year. Vascular and interventional radiology will be soon to follow, so it will also be sort of the tail end of next year, and then we'll get into the hybrid OR in 2025.
Speaker 3:So I just want to touch on to thank Justin and Scott for their leadership of that project. But we were able to maximize our investment in this project by doing all of this within our four walls. You don't see a new building coming from the ground, so that's complicated, first of all, to do that within the hospital and maintain all of our services, but it's also disrupting. So acknowledge those departments that were moved and had to shuffle to make room for this project. But it really allows us to maximize that capital investment by doing things within our hospital and using our space more efficiently.
Speaker 1:So it's a little bit more complicated. Retrofit et cetera yeah.
Speaker 2:It's interesting. A lot of moving pieces. Yeah, I bet Now with Scott.
Speaker 1:Kalaman that you were indicating was doing that good job. Well, one last question Doctors think that health care administrators kind of like Christian rock stars, like couldn't quite make it in the industry. So you went to the Christian route, so you know, kind of couldn't quite be the CEO of Fortune 500 company. So well, I'll just go run a hospital. I know that's not true because I work with you every day.
Speaker 2:Now we know that you're thinking it.
Speaker 1:Yes. But, each of you tell me how did you get into health care?
Speaker 3:Justin is a rock star for clarification there, but I didn't take the traditional route into health care. I have an MBA, not an MHA. Like many was actually in the financial services industry.
Speaker 1:Trans.
Speaker 3:America.
Speaker 3:Trans America yeah, really focused on customer service. They're operational improvements. I'm wired for continuous improvement, figuring out ways we can do things better. But got into health care through a series of events, really on the financial side of HR, the employee benefits and that thing. So that's kind of my background. But the draw to it is health care is very personal. Obviously we're impacting patients in their most vulnerable state. They're trusting us for their care. That's a big ask and a big task and something we take seriously. So it's also challenging, as you know as well.
Speaker 3:Oh, anyway I mean from the financing to the staffing, to the complexity of the care provided, continuous education. I enjoy that aspect of it. It's different every day. I love the diversity of our teams, a wide variety of team members here that all contribute to that patient satisfaction and that patient.
Speaker 1:Well, and all kidding aside, you guys are getting the job done with a less than 2% margin on a good year. I mean Apple has a 43% margin If they had to operate on a 2% margin. That company collapsed. So the fact you guys get the job done and do it so well is impressive, I think.
Speaker 3:And we got a great team. Certainly that makes all the difference.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for me. Growing up, I had some exposure to healthcare my mom, for example, is a nurse and so I had some exposure there, Also had an interest in business and leadership. This was a good opportunity to marry those things together and, most importantly, I did want to go into a field that felt like I could at least make some difference in the community, so it seemed like a perfect opportunity to do that, and that's certainly the case. One thing I will say is I recognize by more and more every single day and working in cardiovascular services certainly is watching our team members provide whether nurses or techs or anyone really provide the kind of care that they do, and see the situations that they encounter and how they do that and how composed they are in what can be, at times, extremely stressful situations, and it's very critical and important things here, and so it's very inspiring to see that happen, and so it's rewarding in that sense that you can kind of witness those things happen.
Speaker 1:So do not regret it at all, I will pay a compliment to both of you, having worked with each of you, that you definitely factor in that patient aspect to decisions you make. You're not just looking at the finances or the operations.
Speaker 2:You really think about and compliment you on that.
Speaker 1:Well, this, thanks for joining me. How many of these have you done? We'll probably hit 300 by the end of the year.
Speaker 3:It's 300 to finally get us on one of these.
Speaker 1:We're really running out of time.
Speaker 3:So I said yeah put.
Speaker 1:Casey. This has been great information and a lot of fun. Once again, this is Casey Green, market President for Unipoint Health Cedar Rapids, and Justin McDonald, director of St Luke's Heart and Vascular Services. For more information on nationally recognized healthcare services provided right here in Cedar Rapids, visit Unipointorg. Thank you for listening and live well. Talk on. If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe. And if you want to spread the word, please give us a five star review and tell your family, friends, neighbors, strangers about our podcast. We're available on Apple podcasts, spotify, pandora or wherever you get your podcast. Until next time, be well.