{"id":103879,"date":"2018-06-18T07:37:24","date_gmt":"2018-06-18T12:37:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=103879"},"modified":"2018-06-19T07:36:41","modified_gmt":"2018-06-19T12:36:41","slug":"vw-health-ceo-jim-pope-moving-hospital-into-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2018\/06\/18\/vw-health-ceo-jim-pope-moving-hospital-into-the-future\/","title":{"rendered":"CEO Jim Pope moving hospital into future"},"content":{"rendered":"

DAVE MOSIER\/<\/strong>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n

Van Wert Health President\/CEO Jim Pope had a busy week last week, with the opening of the new Van Wert Health North outpatient facility and implementation of the Epic healthcare information system — the pre-eminent healthcare software system — at the local hospital.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Van Wert Health President\/CEO Jim Pope in his office at the hospital.<\/strong> Dave Mosier\/Van Wert independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The veteran healthcare executive, who has 41 years’ experience in the industry, said his first goal after coming here in July 2016 was to take some time to look at where the organization was, and then work with staff members to complete a strategic plan to help the hospital move into the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo make a good strategic plan, you\u2019ve got to know where you are — that\u2019s from a physical plant perspective, that\u2019s from a staffing perspective, that\u2019s from a physician perspective, that\u2019s really from a community needs perspective,\u201d Pope said.<\/p>\n

From that process, Pope and his staff came up with three main areas to address: outpatient care, surgical services, and inpatient care.<\/p>\n

The new Van Wert Health North facility will help address the outpatient healthcare portion, since it has the equipment and staff to handle just about any outpatient procedure the local community needs, with the exception of fluoroscopy (injecting dyes into the body to look at internal issues). Those will continue to be done at the hospital facility on South Washington Street.<\/p>\n

Van Wert Health\u2019s 1.2-tesla MRI machine is the absolute best open MRI on the market, Pope said, with images dramatically better than a .6-tesla machine, for instance.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomeone once explained it to me as being the difference between an abstract painting and a photograph,\u201d he noted of the improved image quality.<\/p>\n

More importantly, using the MRI at Van Wert Health North will be cost-effective, compared to other MRIs in the area. Pope said the cost would be, at most, $600. While that\u2019s not cheap, it\u2019s significantly less than the $1,200 to $1,500 most area hospitals charge, he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to compete on price,\u201d Pope said, noting that being competitive on healthcare pricing is something the local hospital organization needs to work on — especially since people today generally have much bigger deductibles and co-pays than in the past.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat means that so much of the upfront cost of healthcare is coming out of every individual\u2019s pocket; not the insurance companies, the individual,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The idea, of course, is to be more cost-effective while also improving the level of healthcare offered locally. Pope believes that doing both of those things should be an incentive for local patients to return to the Van Wert Health organization.<\/p>\n

Implementation of the Epic healthcare software system was also an important move for the local hospital, Pope said, noting that Van Wert Health made the move in partnership with Ohio State University, and will be on OSU\u2019s own Epic system.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat means if you\u2019re a patient at Ohio State, your patient records will already be available there,\u201d the Van Wert Health CEO explained, noting that Parkview Regional Medical Center in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and St. Rita\u2019s Medical Center in Lima also use Epic software, making it easy to share patient records electronically with those healthcare systems.<\/p>\n

Another area the Van Wert Health strategic plan will address is the surgical services area, Pope said. With more and larger equipment in today\u2019s operating rooms, as well as more surgical staff, more space is needed than when Van Wert Health’s surgical suites were built in the late 1950s and early 1960s.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that we need more surgical space and larger surgery rooms,\u201d he said, adding that planning is already underway to enlarge and improve Van Wert Health\u2019s operating suites.<\/p>\n

In addition, the hospital\u2019s inpatient facilities also need improving, because of the amount of equipment now needed in modern hospital rooms. That piece will be a challenge, Pope acknowledged, noting that, with an aging physical plant that was first built in the 1950s, \u201cwe have a lot more opportunities than the finances to pay for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Physician recruitment has also been going well, the Van Wert Health CEO said, noting that Van Wert native and surgeon Dr. Jeramy Stoller has returned to the area, while a husband-and-wife OB-GYN team will also be on board by early autumn.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom that perspective, we are continuing to move forward,\u201d Pope said.<\/p>\n

In addition to improving facilities and patient software, the hospital is also implementing a healthcare quality program as well, with the goal of providing the best quality healthcare possible to its patients.<\/p>\n

Pope said Van Wert Health has implemented a “high reliability” program that he feels will significantly improve the quality of healthcare provided locally. The system, similar to one developed by the aviation industry that has led that industry to nearly error-free operations, provides a number of quality checklists, including two-factor identification and \u201ctimeout\u201d periods to ensure that every member of a patient\u2019s healthcare team is on the same page.<\/p>\n

Pope said the ultimate goal is to be the best community hospital — period — and the first choice for healthcare in the region.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know we\u2019re not the best community hospital, but that\u2019s our goal,\u201d he said, noting that he also knows that the local hospital can\u2019t handle every healthcare need, but feels it can be the first place local patients go when they have a health issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t do everything, but we can get you to where you need to go if we can\u2019t do it,\u201d Pope said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DAVE MOSIER\/independent editor Van Wert Health President\/CEO Jim Pope had a busy week last week, with the opening of the new Van Wert Health North outpatient facility and implementation of the Epic healthcare information system — the pre-eminent healthcare software system — at the local hospital. The veteran healthcare executive, who has 41 years’ experience […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-07 07:54:34","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103879\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}