Did you know that 352,381 health and wellness e-mails were opened by people contacted by Spectrum Health Lakeland in the past year? Or that 5,384 new people signed up for a MyChart Account through the health system in the last year alone? Additionally, 75,958 emergency room visits were logged and 1,612 babies were born there. Those are just some of the numbers assembled by the Spectrum Health Lakeland team as they recently published their 2018 Corporate Annual Report to the community — a report that is now available for public viewing on line at any time.
That comprehensive snapshot highlights a multitude of accomplishments from the past year including: a by-the-numbers look at the institution’s people, facilities, and patients and stories of how caregivers have made a difference in patients’ lives. Other major milestones include the official integration with Spectrum Health which became official on October 1, 2018 and the acquisition of a number of new physician practices.
A look at use of funds reveals that in fiscal year 2017 (latest available data), Lakeland provided a total of $25.2 million in community benefits, including many that went beyond traditional patient care, to improve the quality of life in Michiana. A number of new wellness initiatives were established including the Community Grand Rounds speaker series, renovations to the public fitness track in Watervliet, and the addition of a K-9 security team.
For more information, or to view the full report, you can simply click the link below:
http://www.spectrumhealthlakeland.org/annualreport
The President & CEO, Dr. Loren Hamel, shared some thoughts at the opening of the report. Here’s what he has to say in that publication:
Improving What Matters
If you were to ask someone what quality means to them, you would likely get a different answer each time. If you were to ask me, I would tell you that quality means doing the right things right.
In health care those “right” things are defined as focusing on hospital-acquired infections, mortality rates, patient satisfaction, and readmissions, among others. We need to know how we’re doing in measures that matter. This data provides us with feedback on the outcomes of patients in our care and helps guide our focus for the following year.
To put this more simply, when thinking about Lakeland’s quality journey, it’s important to think about what we would want for our own family. When my loved ones are at the hospital, I don’t want them to die or get an infection. I want them to be happy and feel well cared for. And, I want them to get a good value for the care they are receiving. When they leave the hospital, I don’t want them to have to come back.
I’m proud to say, over the last year we have improved in almost every quality measure that matters. We are managing care for a number of critical diseases very well, in fact quite better than many of our neighboring health systems. Lakeland is in the top five to 10 percent of all hospitals in America in regards to readmissions for a number of key diagnoses including heart attack and heart failure, hip and knee replacement surgery, stroke, pneumonia, and COPD. As a result, our health system will pay no government penalties in 2018.
We also receive feedback directly from our patients in the form of patient satisfaction surveys. I am pleased to share that ratings on communication with nurses and how soon a patient’s call light is answered are the highest we have ever had. This is a direct result of a new patient rounding initiative put into place by our nursing leadership team this past year.
In addition, all three of our hospitals recently achieved straight A’s in The Leapfrog Group’s Fall 2018 Hospital Safety Grade, ranking the organization among the safest hospitals in the United States.
Looking ahead, we are excited to continue this great work, together with our friends at Spectrum Health. Through our recent integration, there are many ways we can learn from each other to help achieve these goals. Spectrum Health’s top tier performance, geographic proximity, and cultural similarity will make this a great partnership. You can read more about these exciting changes for health care in West Michigan on page 8.
Sincerely, Loren B. Hamel, MD — President & CEO
Spectrum Health Lakeland is a non-profit, community-owned health system serving southwest Michigan and northern Indiana, offering a full continuum of care and wellness services including three hospitals, an outpatient surgery center, a cancer center, and 41 physician practices. Lakeland is a division of Spectrum Health with 30,000 compassionate professionals, 4,100 medical staff experts, 3,200 committed volunteers and a health plan serving 1 million members.
