OLYMPIC MEDICAL CENTER'S

More documents

Recommendations

Info

2010 Community Benefit Report 2010 a Year of Growth and Partnership REFLECTING ON Two new physicians joined the Olympic Medical Cancer Center team in 2010, including Erin Nelli, DO, medical oncologist, and Michael Shevach, MD, radiation oncologist. Last year, Olympic Medical Center laid the groundwork for an exciting future by adding a host of new specialists, expanding cancer care, partnering with nearby hospitals and reaching out to urban hospitals to offer expanded services and increase the reach and success of our electronic medical records (EMR) system. Read on to learn more about the additions and initiatives that made 2010 successful. Growing Our Cancer Services As an affiliate of the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, Olympic Medical is dedicated to providing residents with world-class resources for cancer diagnosis and treatment. In 2010, we enhanced this mission by welcoming Erin Nelli, DO, medical oncologist, and Michael Shevach, MD, radiation oncologist, to the cancer center team. Olympic Medical also formalized an agreement with Jefferson Healthcare that enables our cancer specialists to more conveniently treat patients in Jefferson County. “We decided to invest in the most advanced technology on the market to complement our physician expertise,” says Rhonda Curry, assistant administrator of strategic development at Olympic Medical. “With the installation of the Varian TrueBeam linear accelerator – in the spring of 2011 at the Thomas Family Cancer Center facility in Sequim – our physicians can deliver radiation therapy to patients faster and with greater precision than ever before.” Welcoming New Faces to Our Medical Staff The great schools, abundant natural beauty and friendly people of this region add up to a fantastic place to raise a family. Last year, 18 new providers discovered that fact for themselves thanks in part to Olympic Medical’s recruitment efforts. The addition of physicians in specialties including oncology, emergency medicine, family practice, general surgery, pediatrics and orthopaedic surgery ensures Olympic Medical is able to meet the health care needs of friends and neighbors. A Picture-Perfect Partnership Radiology is essential to the diagnosis and treatment of many medical conditions, which is why Olympic Medical partnered with Radia ® , a radiology and vascular surgery group comprised of more than 70 physicians, in late 2009. “We get the best of both worlds by working with Radia,” says Eric Lewis, CEO of Olympic Medical. “Patients have around-the-clock access to four talented radiologists who live in Clallam County, as well as the support of a large group with subspecialty expertise.” 4 www.olympicmedical.org
Putting a Neurologist in Stroke Patients’ Rooms In October 2010, Olympic Medical launched TeleStroke, a program developed for patients who arrive in the emergency department with stroke-like symptoms. An emergency medicine physician evaluates the patient on-site, and a board-certified neurologist at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle is available for consults via real-time video communication 24 hours a day. “When the service is needed, we send a patient’s imaging tests and lab work to a neurologist at Swedish Medical Center electronically, and the neurologist speaks with the patient, his or her family, and an emergency medicine physician on a monitor,” says Lewis. “TeleStroke is a big step forward for stroke care, especially in rural areas such as ours.” Joining Together In collaboration with Forks Community Hospital and Jefferson Healthcare, we set out to seek an affiliation with a tertiary medical center to allow each of our organizations to bolster clinical care and give patients access to services that can’t be found on the North Olympic Peninsula. The hospital partners reached out to seven tertiary facilities in 2010 and will finalize an affiliation with one in 2011. “In challenging economic times, affiliating with a tertiary medical center will allow us to provide more high-quality local services with greater efficiency,” Lewis says. “As part of the affiliation, we’d like to expand our cardiac, orthopaedic and endocrinology services, as well as link our EMR with theirs.” Another Honor for Home Health In the fall of 2010, OCS HomeCare and DecisionHealth named Olympic Medical Home Health a Top 100 Home Health Care Provider yet again. OCS HomeCare and DecisionHealth, two of the country’s foremost sources of home care information, created the HomeCare Elite designation in 2006 to recognize the cream of the home health care crop. Swedish Medical Center neurologists can communicate directly with patients and Olympic Medical Center emergency medicine physicians via a live video feed. Olympic Medical Home Health is one of only 11 agencies nationwide to be recognized in the Top 500 every year since the award’s inception, and the organization placed in the prestigious Top 100 during four of those five years. “Olympic Medical Home Health is the only Medicare-certified home health provider in the region,” says Curry. “Our dedicated professionals travel across a large geographic area to provide care for people where they’re most comfortable – in their own homes.” Pointing the Way for Patients Sometimes hospitals can seem a bit hard to navigate. That’s why professional wayfinding experts worked with Olympic Medical to help identify places to install new signs around the hospital. The wayfinding signs feature photographs of local beaches and forests, courtesy of the Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce. “The hospital has undergone many revisions throughout the years, but we had not comprehensively addressed signage until the fall of 2010,” Lewis says. “Installing new signage was an example of listening to what our patients and their families were telling us and responding to their concerns.” Moving Forward With EMR Last year was a landmark time for EMR implementation, as Olympic Medical Physicians’ primary care, specialty and surgery clinics in Port Angeles and Sequim joined the system. Thanks to the EMR, providers can now access patients’ charts at a moment’s notice and send electronic prescription orders directly to the pharmacy. “The goals of EMR are to improve management of chronic diseases, facilitate safer care and better communication, and increase the efficiency of health care delivery,” Lewis says. “It’s been a long journey to implement EMR – one that will continue in 2011 and beyond – but the benefits are worth it.” For more information about everything that’s happening at Olympic Medical, visit www.olympicmedical.org. www.olympicmedical.org 5
Page 1 and 2: OLYMPIC MEDICAL CENTER’S 2010 COM
Page 3: Another Successful Year Uniting to
Page 7 and 8: % Operating Margin % Operating Marg
Page 9 and 10: a Year Makes night out to view the
Page 11 and 12: Dr. Kara Kurtz Urnes Daryl and Kim

OLYMPIC MEDICAL CENTER'S

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?