Health System advances to set itself apart from competition
BUTLER TWP — The health care field is rapidly changing, and Butler Health System is likewise evolving.
While the health system is best known for its flagship hospital, Butler Memorial, the health system's outpatient care facilities throughout the region have been more emphasized in recent years.
It now has more than 30 outpatient facilities, with a handful outside the county.
Those facilities include minor surgery centers, rehabilitation centers, testing centers and emergency care centers.
More than 15,000 patients are admitted to Butler Memorial each year, but it's apparent in the numbers that outpatient care has had a large impact, too: Between all the BHS outpatient center appointments last year, there were almost 500,000 visits.
“That's a strategy we began nearly 20 years ago now, in getting as much outpatient work out of the hospital and into the neighborhoods in which people live,” said Ken DeFurio, CEO of the health system. “It's convenient. It's fast. It's less expensive. So, that ambulatory network now, all of our outpatient work throughout the system is worth about ... 65 to 70 percent of our total revenues.
“Ambulatory care and outpatient care are a very big part of what we do, and it's where the health care industry continues to head because of cost issues,” he added.
The largest outpatient facilities are at Benbrook, Saxonburg, Slippery Rock, and East Campus, which is adjacent to the hospital.
The health system also is looking at expanding doctors' practices. For instance, it recently acquired Seneca Health System in Venango County, a practice made up of seven doctors.
DeFurio said health care officials plan to continue this trend: acquiring top-notch doctors and practices through the region. The health system now employs more than 80 physicians, which is more than double the number of five years ago.
“Patients really don't choose hospitals; they choose doctors. And doctors choose hospitals,” he said.
“So the relationships with the doctors really are important, and we want to make sure that doctors choose Butler Health System and Butler Memorial Hospital.
“We have a very solid base of primary care physicians and specialists here locally. And now we are finding that physicians in surrounding counties are weighing their options for the future, too.”
DeFurio said, “Our focus is, let's hire the right doctors, doctors who are focused on thinking about the future, and who do understand the importance of cost and quality.”The health system is made up of 35 offices of physicians.“We're really looking at cost, quality and service we think that will set us up to be successful,” said Stephanie Roskovski, COO at the health system. “We have the hospital, we have the outpatient testing locations, and then we do have physicians offices throughout.”DeFurio said the health system has been trying to keep ahead of the curve as far as the health care model the federal Affordable Care Act encourages: Keeping costs low, but broadening services and keeping care quality high.“We've worked very hard for awhile now to provide a scope of services so that patients and families don't have to travel into the city,” DeFurio said.“Everyone around here knows about the open heart surgery program. It has been very successful.”However, he also stressed that in-patient care still is important and necessary. The 296-bed facility at Butler Memorial employs more than 1,700 staff members.And the $124 million hospital tower project, completed in 2010, symbolically and literally cemented the commitment to the hospital and in-patient care for decades to come. That's evident in expanding programming and equipment the hospital has acquired.Last year, BMH expanded its neurosurgery program after two Pittsburgh doctors, Michael Horowitz and Richard Spiro, came to Butler with neurosurgery expertise.“Originally what was being offered at Butler was just spine surgery,” said Horowitz. “We expanded that to surgery on the head and brain, and also, endovascular surgery, which is using catheters to treat vascular problems, strokes, other vascular abnormalities of the brain and spinal cord, minimally invasive.”The neurosurgery team has treated more than 300 patients since the program was expanded last May. Almost two-thirds of those patients came for the newly expanded programs.“They represented an expansion of the services that were provided. Meaning treatment of stroke, treatment of brain tumors, that were not being done at Butler before,” Horowitz said.Another Pittsburgh-area doctor plans to join the neurosurgery team next year.And recently, the hospital reached another, albeit smaller, milestone. Butler Memorial is one of the first health care centers in the region to receive a Panther system, an automated molecular diagnostic machine.To put simply, it makes laborious manual testing a fairly simple process. The health system is now primarily using the machine to test for HPV, but it can be used to test for other viruses and diseases, too, such as hepatitis and chlamydia.HPV stands for human papillomavirus, a sexually transmitted disease that in some cases, depending on the strain, is a precursor to cervical cancer.All in all, the machine streamlines processes that previously took hours of work for physicians.“It's the latest technology,” said Dr. Robert Patterson, medical director of Laboratory and Laboratory Outreach at the hospital. “It's making things much more efficient.”The machine retails for $175,000.The array of services Butler Memorial and the health system offer also includes cardiology, orthopedic surgery, bariatric surgery, and oncology, as well as urgent care and ambulatory care services.
<B>Address: </B>Butler Memorial Hospital, One Hospital Way, Butler<B>Officers: </B>Ken DeFurio, CEO; Stephanie Roskovski, COO<B>Employees: </B>1,750 at the hospital; more than 2,000 employees in the health system<B>Mission statement: </B>“Butler Health System is privileged to be a healing presence in the communities we serve. We exist to make a positive difference in the lives of people by providing compassionate, high quality care and comfort and inspiring health and well being.”<B>Website:</B> www.butlerhealthsystem.org
