Q & A with CEO Mark Newton

Nearly 250 employees attended the three open forum sessions with Mark Newton on Thursday, December 10. These employee forums are designed to give employees the opportunity to have face-to-face interaction with hospital executives and to improve communication lines between executives and employees.

After discussing the 2009 Employee Survey results and how the hospital plans to address the findings, Mark shared his positive outlook for the $3 million Beaker campaign which will end in March 2010 and his pride in the hospital for how we have responded to the difficult economy as an organization. He also spoke about Swedish Covenant Hospital as a teaching hospital, as well as the hospital’s new vision statement: “To excel as the leading independent hospital in Chicago.”

He then invited employees to bring up any questions, concerns or comments that they have about the hospital.

Below are the questions and answers that were discussed at the forum. Sharing this dialogue helps keep our entire staff informed about important things happening at the hospital, as well as in the health care industry in general.

Q: I’ve recently read about Northwestern Memorial’s bid to acquire Lake Forest Hospital. Have we been approached about a merger?
M: Thank you for watching the news and looking beyond the walls of this institution. In my 10 years here, no one has approached us regarding a merger or acquisition. On the contrary, we’ve looked into acquiring or merging with other hospitals on multiple occasions but have decided to walk away to preserve the success of our organization rather than take on the risks associated with others.

In the last 10 years, we’ve grown our market share 65 percent. This far exceeds any other hospital in the area. The hospitals that are acquiring other hospitals and merging are following a strategy of expanding in size and mass to gain market share; our strategy is to grow volumes of patients from our own area, and we have seen success from this.

In reference to Northwestern, this is the first time ever that Northwestern has acquired a community hospital. The outcome is yet to be determined. It may be a great experiment and a lot of money spent finding out.

Q: Will we expand our childcare center? We have nurses in need of these services for their family.
Jonathan Lind responded that we have no current plans and it’s a question of campus space and capital allocation.

Q: What is the outlook for ECF, 4S? It is stressful to work under uncertainty of closure.
M: It is understandable that this would be stressful. This continuum of care that we offer is fundamentally important. I want to keep ECF open. Changes have been made to keep us at the break-even status.

Q: In ECF, the nurse-patient ratio has increased, so nursing responsibility has increased. But nurses are often reprimanded for working overtime. It is hard to balance this.
M: We need a continuing care unit in our hospital, but we also have to be fair to all units in the hospital. This unit is costing up to $1 million every year, so we have increased the financial performance of the unit by making some changes. We ask all our employees to help enforce these changes. That said, no one in our organization should ever feel threatened.

Mary Shehan: When it comes to a response to overtime, we are not addressing individual performances or a one-day-only incidence, but rather a pattern of behavior. Each hour of overtime addsto hours and hours that the hospital is paying for out of pocket.

Q: Where do you see SCH 10 years from now? 
M: I don’t know where we will be in 10 years. But I see new and exciting clinical services here which could continue to improve our hospital in the future. In the area of electronic records we are standouts on a national level. Next month we will begin robotic surgery here. Medical education is another area of growth. We are training new physicians in order to bring a really high caliber of well-trained physicians to our staff in the future.

We are making a lot of investments and facility expansions so we can grow through this economy. We have to continue to be flexible and prepared to change quickly in the coming years.

Q: Why don’t we have a volunteer program for medical trainees?
Mary Shehan: We have a very robust volunteer program. We have been holding a nursing camp program for six years with junior high students as well as working with Northside and Mather High Schools. We work closely with Big Brother, Big Sister in the local elementary school and have had recent visits with Chicago Public School students. We need to do a better job of communicating this information.

Q: Are there plans for developing the property on Foster, across from the Galter LifeCenter, where the synagogue used to be?
The property is owned by Covenant Retirement Communities and right now there are no plans for development.

Q: Can you clarify the changes to the hospital benefits plan?
Michelle Aronson: HMO and PPO plans did not change from last year with one exception: the deductible on the PPO plan is eliminated if you are using SCH resources. The co-pays and co-insurances are the same. This plan is effective beginning January 1.

Here are some comments that were shared by employees:

• SCH’s Magnet application has been reviewed and we are advancing toward the next step in our journey toward Magnet excellence. This is a great accomplishment that all employees should be aware and proud of.

• Thank you for the Jewel gift cards. They are very appreciated.