Hospital approves comprehensive strategic plan

Bill Bumgarner

A five-year strategic plan, outlining specific hospital priorities and strategies, was approved by the Spencer Hospital Board of Trustees at the July board meeting Thursday morning.

"Over the past eight months a wide range of health care community stakeholders -- including physicians, board members and hospital leaders - evaluated the range of factors that are anticipated to impact the local health care delivery system," said Bill Bumgarner, Spencer Hospital president. "We learned future success will be directly related to our ability to respond to the changes health care reform are anticipated to bring. This will include an increased focus on how quality outcomes and hospital-physician collaboration will drive the resources available to invest in the long-term growth of our services, technology and facility infrastructure."

The plan includes 28 specific strategies, all which fall under one of five identified priority categories, which are:

* Quality

* Service Line Growth

* Physician Alignment

* Corridor Strategy

* Operations

John Rahn, Spencer Hospital Board chairman said, "A great deal of time and effort has gone into developing a comprehensive plan to guide us in meeting the changing health care environment while at the same time, providing outstanding care to those we serve. Developing a strategic plan is work; however, the real work starts today with approval of this plan. The job going forward is to implement the many detailed strategies designed to help us meet those goals and to continually monitor our progress."

"Spencer Hospital has a special responsibility to provide a wide range of health care services to the community and region," said Bumgarner. "This plan acknowledges we are mindful of the great trust that has been placed in us to ensure quality and responsive services today and long into the future."

The Spencer Hospital Strategic Plan

Five Priority Categories

Quality -- Demonstrate excellence in clinical quality, patient safety and services.

Service Line Growth -- Offer additional services where community need and physician/hospital interest align.

Physician Alignment -- Align physician and hospital interests through collaboration.

Corridor Strategy -- Partner with Iowa Lakes Corridor medical communities to offer integrated care.

Operations -- Ensure operational integrity through revenue growth, cost management and a high quality of work life.

Spencer Hospital President Bill Bumgarner Comments

"Spencer Hospital has always focused on quality outcomes and exceptional patient care," Bumgarner commented. "Taking this commitment a step further, our goal is to expand the process for how we monitor our performance and focus on improving the health of our community through even better clinical outcomes as well as a greater emphasis on prevention."

"Traditionally hospital leadership, in collaboration with the medical staff and community partners, has evaluated opportunities to develop local services so our patients don't have to leave the region for care. The strategic plan includes goals to continue evaluating service opportunities and demonstrate the quality of existing services we provide to maximize utilization of local services."

"We're fortunate to have a strong family practice group as well as a diverse and dedicated specialty physician practices serving our region," Bumgarner said. "The hospital has benefited from a collegial relationship with our medical staff over many years. With the potential impact of health care reform measures, it will be important to continue positive engagement to maintain strong physician practices and a strong hospital."

"For many years the physician specialty practices serving patients at Spencer Hospital have also provided care to patients at neighboring hospitals," Bumgarner said. "There is a consensus among the leaders representing the hospitals in the Corridor region that all our communities benefit from such collaboration. This includes working together to help recruit new health care professionals to the region and identifying ways to coordinate care systems that impact the patients we serve."

"The hospital is a nonprofit entity, yet at the same time, it's a multimillion dollar business," Bumgarner stated. "It's essential we have a long-range plan for prudent investment in equipment, services and our facility, while at the same time, managing costs to continue to meet the health care needs of those we serve."