Executives: Some collaboration happening between Cape's two hospitals

Bringing down health-care costs must be a collaborative process, said leaders of both Cape Girardeau hospitals at the Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce’s First Friday Coffee gathering.

Jon K. Rust, publisher of the Southeast Missourian and co-president of Rust Communications, moderated a discussion between Saint Francis Medical Center president and CEO Maryann Reese and SoutheastHEALTH president and CEO Ken Bateman.

Saint Francis and SoutheastHEALTH have almost 4 1/2 times the number of employees as the third-largest employer in Cape Girardeau County, which is Procter & Gamble, Rust said. Payroll and benefits in 2016 totaled $336 million and capital investment was $183 million, according to the Missouri Hospital Association, Rust said.

The two organizations have a seminal affect on the Cape Girardeau economy and the community’s health, Rust said.

But while Reese said she feels the weight of responsibility for the nearly 3,000 employees of the Saint Francis health-care system, what doesn’t keep her up at night is her competition.

Maryann Reese

“This community is big enough for two hospitals,” Reese said, calling the quality of health care available here “second to none.”

“I’m very proud of that,” Reese said.

“The most precious resource we have are the people who work for us, and we must continue to make sure we keep them employed and continue with our very important place in Cape Girardeau and the surrounding areas,” Reese said.

One way to achieve that goal is collaboration.

Reese said she and Bateman have been talking since she became CEO a couple of months ago about areas of potential collaboration.

“We do collaborate more than people perhaps realize we do,” Reese said. She acknowledged the importance of ensuring collaborative efforts make sense and comply with antitrust laws and other regulations.

Emergency preparedness is one area where collaboration is happening, Reese said — even something as simple as a hospital contacting the other if a pharmacy is out of a certain drug.

But if there are service lines that can be combined or other certain objectives that can be done together for the good of the community, Reese said, and that’s where having two hospitals in one community is helpful.

“Competition is good among hospitals,” Reese said. “It keeps us on our toes, improves quality of patient care.”

Reese said it’s important for residents to seek treatment locally for the betterment of the health-care system and the local economy.

Bateman said he doesn’t see unhealthy competition between the two hospitals.

“We want to make sure it stays healthy,” he said, adding healthy competition elevates health care overall.

Bateman acknowledged it is sometimes difficult to combine some service lines, as those lines are deeply integrated into a hospital’s offerings. But he said there are areas outside health-care organizations that relate to health and can be addressed collaboratively.

As an example, growing rates of diabetes, obesity and heart disease in the region can be addressed, Bateman said.

“We should be working with the community” that way, he said.

“Our commitment is to keep competition healthy and do what we can for the community,” Bateman said.

That health-care costs are rising is undeniable, Bateman and Reese agreed, and several factors are at play. Government regulations on technology and electronic recordkeeping drive up costs, as do rising costs of pharmaceuticals and research and development.

But Reese said health-care costs account for about 26 percent of the federal budget — more than the Department of Defense’s spending during wartime, she said. And when it comes time to trim from the budget, the biggest bucket gets reduced first.

To decrease costs, Reese said, health and wellness must become more of a focus between employers and employees.

Making sure employees don’t smoke and giving employees incentives to eat right and exercise are important steps, Reese said.

Bateman said it’s important for people to take into account the value of progress in medicine as well and the higher cost of better technology.

“Think of how medicine has progressed,” Bateman said. “I wouldn’t accept the medicine available in the 1990s, much less the 1950s.”

Reese said another important focus is keeping people in the right level of care. With end-of-life care being costly and the cost of pharmaceuticals rising, Reese said, “we have to do something different to get different results.”

mniederkorn@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3630

Pertinent address:

211 St. Francis Drive, Cape Girardeau, Mo.

1701 Lacey St., Cape Girardeau, Mo.