Phoebe Putney Health System focusing on building physician manpower in 2015

ALBANY — While policy and federal government continues to play a role in what happens within Phoebe Putney Health System, adjusting to those policies and building on what it is in place will be a priority this year for the largest representative of the health care industry in Southwest Georgia.

The Affordable Care Act has an impact in terms of reimbursements and, in turn, has an influences on both patients and providers. In the case of many south Georgia hospitals, it has had negative impacts.

The Indigent Care Trust Fund is meant to expand Medicaid eligibility and services, support rural and other care providers who serve medically indigent, and support primary health care programs for medically indigent Georgians. It is funded through a variety of mechanisms, including federal funding via the Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) program.

The federal DSH dollars are expected to go away as part of the health care reform, as they were expected to be replaced with Medicaid expansion. When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Medicaid expansion was a state decision, Georgia opted to not do it. A gap in funding resulted that has forced some hospitals to close, with rural areas the hardest hit. The Georgia Hospital Association has drafted a proposal supporting expansion.

“Republican control has a strong impact, and (it has) implications that impact the hospital,” said Phoebe CEO Joel Wernick.

While adjustments are made to ensure the overall impact to Phoebe is minimal, among the issues being addressed is quality improvement. For that, the focus is expanding the critical care department — currently eight physicians — established at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital last year.

“The implementation of high intensive care staffing created physician manpower oversight (valued by) grading systems in the country,” said Wernick. “We will build on that in the coming months. As we gather information (on the department’s progress), we look forward to sharing that.”

The department was created in August to establish a critical care model, to allow additional time for the hospital’s most compromised patients while improving quality, and to facilitate the incorporation of evidence-based protocols while also improving quality and safety parameters. The physicians work in four adult intensive care units totaling 50 beds at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital and Phoebe North.

Manpower is also being invested in by potentially bringing in more slots to the Southwest Georgia Family Residency Program based at Phoebe that currently accommodates 16 residents. Meanwhile, there are plans to build a medical student village.

The medical student village is planned for a plot at North Jackson Street and West Fourth Avenue for those doing Southwest Georgia rotations through the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Regents University and the University of Georgia Pharmacy School. The complex is expected to house up to 40 students, and will include family housing in a gated community that the students will live in for a nominal fee.

The project is anticipated to cost $5 million, and Phoebe has the capacity to match donations up to $2.5 million. Half of the funding needs to be raised before construction can begin. A $1 million grant from the Richard King Mellon Foundation is included in the philanthropic efforts to get the complex built.

“We are actively engaging other philanthropy,” Wernick said.”It makes medical students and residents come to Southwest Georgia. (It addresses) the housing piece of the puzzle as a barrier. We are in the architect selection process, and we have the goal of a fall groundbreaking.”

On the Phoebe North front, administrative proceedings regarding the Federal Trade Commission’s opposition to the December 2010 purchase of the former Palmyra Medical Center by the Hospital Authority of Albany-Dougherty County have been stayed until Friday to consider a possible settlement. A previous settlement was proposed by the FTC in August 2013, but the FTC withdrew it last year.

“We hope the resolution will be under the same terms (as the previous settlement),” Wernick said. “We have put on hold (plans) to modify the North campus.

“We will revisit the assumption of services to see what will be located at which campus.”

The CEO said the main campus, Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital, will serve as a high-intensity campus — in part toward an enhancement into trauma center designation — while using its Albany sister hospital as a low-intensity campus for less emergent situations while still looking at the possibility of a women’s and children’s center, as was initially the intended purpose for the Palmyra Road campus.

Aside from routine maintenance, Wernick said there were no projects planned for surrounding hospitals in the system. Floors on the main campus are systematically renovated, with the cancer floor next on the list — work likely coinciding with developments at the North campus, he said.

Facilities aside, among the largest investments Phoebe Putney Health System has recently made is moving toward an information system making clinical staff less dependent on paperwork and more so on electronic record keeping.

Last summer, a significant step was made when outpatient facilities were brought on board.

“(Over the course of the next) seven to eight months, we are converting from one system to the next,” Wernick said. “We will have a uniform platform for all Phoebe facilities. In October, we will have all the hospitals in the system on the same system.”

The cost is expected to be a $20 million investment each year over the next couple of years with the hopes improved patient safety will be a benefit in the long run, and make the inevitable transitional issues worthwhile.

“(Doctors) will have immediate access to current and past information,” Wernick said. “Past actions (will) be communicated (better) in a doctor setting.

“Since the Affordable Care Act mandates (hospitals) do that, hospitals that have not had some some form of conversion are in the process of doing so.”

Wernick also made mention of the 10 acres of land at the Newton Road Pecan Grove Corporate Park that Phoebe Putney Health System agreed to purchase for $15,000 per acre in August 2013 to build a 100,000-square-foot distribution center as a means to bring in medical supplies for health care facilities throughout the region at an overall cheaper cost.

“We will partner with other hospitals in the region to share in driving down cost,” Wernick said. “The patient benefits with the hospital finding ways to buy things cheaper.”