TIM JOHNSEN. President of Integris Baptist Medical Center (Oklahoma City)
On the top challenge
"The most pressing health concern for citizens of Oklahoma is likely access to the appropriate level of care in regard to population health. We are primarily a rural state, and both the private sector and public monies for care delivery continue to stress-test the state. Rural facilities are being squeezed out, omitting necessary access to care in their own communities which in turn drives patient volumes to the metro areas and creates inpatient capacity issues. The top 5 to 10 percent of the patient population who are the sickest (and well-documented in the disproportioned costs of their care) are filling and bottle-necking our metro hospitals."
On the hospital's response
"To address these shifts in access points, Integris has been a forward-thinker in terms of e-visits (nationally, there were more than 100 million e-visits in the U.S. in 2016), integrating and organizing a healthcare network with our employed and aligned physicians, lowering costs with high reliability and more rapid and efficient development of the diagnostic plan for the patient, and using more interdisciplinary teams with patient and family involvement to identify optimal solutions and outcomes for the patient. We've also developed and piloted a '5-50' program which focuses on the 5 percent of the population that utilizes 50 percent of the resources. We have had some incredible patient testimonials, improved outcomes, markedly reduced costs and a great reduction in the use of the ER as their primary care-giver. In this program, our case management team has partnered with many community agencies to optimize resources for this patient population, and the results have been remarkable. We are in the process of expanding this to all of our hospitals across the state."