'What EMS Never Sees'

On November 16 Research Medical Center hosted ‘What EMS Never Sees.’ The event was designed to give EMS providers a rare opportunity to understand the continuum of care a patient receives once they’re brought to the emergency room. EMS providers had the opportunity to visit operating room suites, interventional radiology, cath lab, intensive care unit and rehabilitation. The rotations with three patient scenarios (trauma, stroke and stemi) were designed by Tina York, an EMS professional and current EMS relations director at HCA Midwest Health System. Participants received 4.5 hours CEU certified by the Kansas City Fire Department. 

HCA Midwest Health System and CareSpot to Establish Urgent Care Centers in Greater Kansas City Area

HCA Midwest Health System and CareSpot have established a joint venture to bring as many as six urgent care centers to the Greater Kansas City area starting in early 2013 and continuing throughout the year. The new partnership would make CareSpot and HCA Midwest the leading urgent care provider in the area.  

   

Convenient, high-quality healthcare  

“Urgent care is an important aspect of HCA Midwest Health System’s vision to provide our community with a quality, comprehensive health system," says M.L. Lagarde, president of HCA Midwest. "Our expertise as a health network can best bridge the continuum of care between urgent, primary and acute care. Our partner, CareSpot, has a proven track record of delivering a highly convenient, less expensive alternative to emergency room visits for non-emergency injuries and illnesses. Our partnership represents a significant step forward in bringing increased access to extraordinary and affordable healthcare in the communities that we serve.”  

   

“Our joint venture with HCA Midwest is an exciting opportunity to partner with a well-known, high-quality healthcare provider in the Kansas City area, expand our base beyond Florida and Tennessee, and move into other markets where there is strong demand for urgent care centers," says CareSpot CEO Michael D. Klein. "Customers want more convenient, high-quality healthcare, and that's what we'll deliver. Online and mobile scheduling tools at CareSpot.com allow customers to book appointments, compare center wait times, and even save a spot in line — this helps them easily get in and out so they can start feeling better quickly.”  

   

The new urgent care centers will offer healthcare services to treat non-emergent medical problems that can develop unexpectedly and require immediate attention, filling the gap between primary care physicians and hospital emergency rooms. This partnership offers patients the staffing benefits and expertise of a proven network of urgent care centers combined with the broader resources of a large hospital system if a higher level of care is required. The new centers will operate as CareSpot in partnership with HCA Midwest Health System. CareSpot will manage daily operations.  

   

CareSpot is the largest urgent care provider in Florida  

With nearly 500,000 patient visits each year, CareSpot operates 30 urgent care centers in Florida and is the largest urgent care provider in the state. Headquartered in Brentwood, Tennessee, the urgent care company currently employs more than 500 people and plans to double in size over the next 18 months.

CEO Message

At the last Town Hall meetings I reported that I would do a brief bi-weekly blog update as an additional step to keep the staff informed of activities within our medical center.

First of all thank you to those that attended the Town Hall meetings. Attendance was very good and participation reflected your interest in what is going on at Research Medical Center. As always there are a few items that come to me in these meetings that prompts discussion and changes for improvement.

We recently completed a very successful JCAHO survey. The surveyors commented throughout the survey how impressed they were with how you handled tracer interactions, employee engagement on performance improvement initiatives, and also reported several “best practices” they witnessed from the staff. They are going to report out some of the best practices at the annual meeting with the HCA executives in Nashville; so you made us all look good!

As we approach the holiday season, it is always appropriate to be reflective on the year we are closing out. All in all 2012 will go down as an outstanding year for Research Medical Center. Quality metrics across the board are improving and at the top of their class, patient volumes are high, and we will meet our financial targets for the year. Areas for improvement are significant and will be a major focus of your management team. Those include employee engagement, physician satisfaction, and patient satisfaction. While we did not go backwards from the previous year in these areas, we either did not improve or continued to be inconsistent. We have good information from these surveys and a strong and engaged management team so I am confident and excited about focusing on improvement in these three areas next year.

In my next blog among other topics I will discuss the Magnet journey we are on. Feel free to e mail me topics you would like me to cover in these blogs.