A shake-up in Erlanger hospital's executive structure should bring corporate leaders closer in touch with doctors and the patients they treat, the hospital's president and chief executive said Wednesday.
The new design deploys executives closer to the point of care, Jim Brexler said.
"It'll be the input of these folks that helps set the priorities for how we get our job done," he said.
The new structure, which became official July 1, divvies up operating responsibilities - previously handled by Charlesetta Woodard-Thompson as chief operating officer - among four Erlanger officials. The four will report directly to Brexler and have increased autonomy in managing their assigned hospital campuses and service lines, he said.
"We want speed of execution and speed of decision to get things done for the patients, to get things done for the physicians ... and to be responsive," Brexler said. "These people will be held accountable for the results of their operations, and they'll be given the authority to make decisions inside their operational boxes."
As executive vice president of corporate services, Woodard-Thompson's responsibilities now are focused on systemwide corporate concerns, Brexler said.
The set-up gives the new leaders - Roger Forgey, Donna Bourdon, Keith Helton and Alan Kohrt, all of whom already held leadership roles at Erlanger - the benefit of a ground-level perspective that will inform corporate leaders' system-wide decision making.
The changes, part of the hospital's overarching strategic plan, put Erlanger in a stronger position to deal with the uncertainties that national health care reform brings to the medical landscape, officials said.
The move also lends more support to the hospital's employed physician practices, which are becoming the norm for many hospitals and have grown rapidly at Erlanger in recent years, Brexler said. The number of employed physicians at Erlanger has tripled in three years, from 40 to more than 120 today, he said.
Some details, including the new officials' job titles, still are in flux, Brexler said.
One major change is that, for the first time, Erlanger's downtown campus will have its own lead administrator, a role managed by Forgey, Brexler said.
"I want to make sure there is a point person that is focused on the tertiary programming and the relationships this tertiary hospital has to the regional hospital that refer in and out to us," he said.
NO PAY RAISES
The new officers have not received a pay raise along with their new responsibilities, Brexler said, but the hospital is undertaking a study to determine appropriate salaries for these positions.
Still, no senior executives will get raises or bonuses this year until the hospital has fulfilled an earlier commitment to give raises to about 20 percent of Erlanger's employees - those who are earning less than market norms for their positions, he said.
Internal medicine specialist Dr. Keith Helton will oversee physician services and manage a developing, hospital-wide physician practice group, which will act as an umbrella over the employed doctors' practices already established at Erlanger.
By making doctors' voices heard at the corporate level and involving doctors in executive decision making, Erlanger's new structure brings about a "cultural shift" at the hospital, Helton said.
"For us to truly do great things, physicians and hospitals ... gotta work together," he said. "Do I think it's a true turning point for Erlanger? Yeah, I really do. Do I think this could potentially have a dramatic, positive impact on our community? Definitely."
Dr. Charles Longer, a retired internal medicine specialist and Erlanger trustee, said he is hopeful the new structure will improve operations.
"I think it's always good to re-evaluate, to try something new if there might be some benefit, but I think you'll never know if there's a better way if you don't try," he said.
Trustee Jennifer Stanley said the change supports Erlanger's goals of creating a "niche" area for each of Erlanger's campuses, such as the focus on geriatric care at Erlanger North in Red Bank and women's services at Erlanger East.
"I think this move puts management closer to everyday operations and provides that level of accountability," she said. "I am pleased to see the changes that are taking place."
The change was not discussed at any Erlanger public meetings. Board members were informed of the plan in "strategic planning" sessions.
Certain closed meetings are permitted by 2008 legislation that allows any public hospital subject to open meeting laws or public record laws to discuss strategic plans in closed meetings. No action can be taken at a closed meeting.
Board approval was not required to make the administrative changes, officials said.