From the CEO's Desk: "Advancement & Growth at Franciscan Alliance"

Submitted by Gene Diamond, chief executive officer of Franciscan Alliance's Northern Indiana Region. This was also published in the 2011 Quality & Innovation special section of The Times of Northwest Indiana newspaper.

The hospitals that serve Franciscan Alliance's Northern Indiana Region continue to be at the forefront of innovation, not only in their nationally and locally recognized provision of health care, but in management and fiscal practices that help us operate efficiently – and lead to growth.

That growth is evident in our recent acquisitions of Calumet Surgery Center of Munster and Hammond Clinic's three area locations.

Our latest advances in care are numerous. Examples include:

• Franciscan St. Anthony Health-Michigan City is scheduled to open a new, state-of-the-art Cancer Treatment Center next April. The 20,000-square-foot facility will combine the most advanced technologies. What's more, the hospital recently was recognized by the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancerwith an Outstanding Achievement Award.
• Franciscan St. Anthony Health will open a Chesterton Health and Emergency Center early next year that will include onsite laboratory, MRI and CT scans, primary care and 24-hour emergency coverage.    
• Franciscan St. Anthony Health-Crown Point recently opened a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Early next year, the hospital will open a 27,000-square-foot outpatient surgery center at its Franciscan Point health complex located along U.S. 231, near Interstate 65. In late fall, it is expected to open a revamped and relocated Radiology Oncology Department that will be the new home of a linear accelerator, which will make cancer treatment more efficient and effective.
• Franciscan St. Margaret Health-Dyer and Hammond just opened a Family Birthing Center at its Dyer Campus, in addition to the obstetrics unit at the Hammond Campus. It also offers what has been called the "quintessential" wound care center in the Chicago area – the Wound Healing and Prevention Institute. Its Bariatric Institute likewise offers unsurpassed care.
• Franciscan Physicians Hospital in Munster is the first in Indiana to purchase the Trabectome minimally invasive glaucoma treatment program that provides better treatment through reduced risk and cost effectiveness. It likewise offers a new catheterization laboratory that provides the latest equipment for interventional cardiology and endovascular procedures.

Our advancements are made possible by employing the smartest and most efficient business practices, needed more than ever with the challenges brought by health care reforms that threaten the very existence of some hospitals.

Enter Lean and Six Sigma, a nationally recognized set of business and management practices we have followed since 2005 to help eliminate defects in processes and assure utmost efficiency. Our advancements are too numerous to list, but Dr. Paul Strange, Franciscan Alliance corporate vice president of quality, sums it up well: "Lean and Six Sigma models for process improvement and elimination of waste in health care mean improvements in the quality of our care, making our systems safer and cost effective."

Yes, the changes brought by latest health care reforms present the greatest challenges we have faced.

But our culture of care, advancement and working as efficiently as possible, will prove invaluable in weathering the storm.