New health care law pressures hospitals, doctors

By Nick Tabor, New Era Senior Staff Writer

Changes in insurance reimbursements are putting serious pressure on hospitals and doctors alike — but different kinds for each, said Eric Lee, president of Jennie Stuart Medical Center, in a presentation Thursday evening.

For Jennie Stuart, much of the pressure is competitive.

At one time it only competed with other nearby hospitals, like those in Madisonville and Clarksville, for patients. But on account of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, it now competes with all the nation’s hospitals in quality measurements. If it ranks highly enough, its Medicare reimbursements don’t get docked, Lee said.

Jennie Stuart to debut newsletter next month

By Nick Tabor, New Era Senior Staff Writer

Jennie Stuart Medical Center will soon start distributing a glossy four-page newsletter each month, spotlighting successful procedures and available services.

“We believe the public will learn something new every issue,” said James Goss, Jennie Stuart’s marketing director. As editor, Goss will write some articles himself and assign others to freelancers.

Each issue will feature at least two patients. The first edition, which is headed to the printing press, tells the stories of a cancer survivor and a woman who had complications while giving birth. Hospital personnel saved her life, Goss said.

17-page plan details steps for improving our health

By Nick Tabor, New Era Senior Staff Writer

Several months ago, Mark Pyle, director of the Christian County Health Department, promised a more proactive approach to this area’s health — one that unified the hospital, local government and others toward a common goal.

Now those organizations are getting their assignments.

Jennie Stuart Medical Center needs to bring in more doctors, according to the 2012 Community Health Assessment and Improvement Plan, which the health department will make public next week.

Hopkinsville City Council needs to improve public transportation, so people can get to their doctors’ offices, and get serious about adding sidewalks and walking trails.

Products from Mass. company recalled from local medical facilities

By Nick Tabor, New Era Senior Staff Writer

The Massachusetts company blamed for the meningitis outbreak had systemic problems with sterilization in its drug lab, state inspectors found.

Two Hopkinsville facilities, plus others throughout Kentucky and Tennessee, have been using products from the company — though mostly not the ones that cause meningitis. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration released an exhaustive list this week of the company’s customers.

The manufacturer, New England Compounding Center, has recalled all its products. So Jennie Stuart Medical Center has ceased using a muscle relaxant it produced, called Robaxin, and has notified all 73 patients who have received the drug since May.

The FDA has not reported any illnesses associated with Robaxin. Jennie Stuart’s letter to patients described the recall as a precautionary measure, according to a hospital news release.

Treating dementia requires facilities

Sen. Pendleton says he’ll lobby for expansion of Western State
Part two in a two-part series

By Nick Tabor, New Era Senior Staff Writer

Twenty miles north of Louisville, in Charlestown, Ind., the small St. Catherine Regional Hospital has a 26-bed facility for elderly patients who have mental problems.

The way a nurse describes it, the facility sounds like a far cry from a lush independent living center. But families, nursing homes and hospitals in Kentucky — including Western Kentucky — would be in worse trouble without it.

Often its patients have worked on farms or in auto shops or maintenance departments for years, said Amelia Johns, a St. Catherine nurse.

When dementia short-circuits their mental faculties, their bodies remain strong and even anxious. They can hardly sit still. Sometimes they tear out sinks, and one patient dismantled his entire bed.

“How he even took it apart with his bare hands is beyond me, but he did,” Johns said. “They’re pretty destructive sometimes.”

Event provides women chance to put themselves 1st

By Nick Tabor, New Era Senior Staff Writer

All adult women should see a doctor once a year for a physical and — for most — a pelvic examination and a clinical breast examination, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists reports.

But in a county where about 18 percent of residents don’t have health insurance and many more have bare-bones coverage, the medical community knows much of the public can’t follow these guidelines.

It’s the reason Helen Cayce, an advanced registered nurse practitioner, is organizing a women’s health show this week for the 12th year in a row.

“Women just don’t take care of themselves,” Cayce said. “They always take care of their family first.”

Jennie Stuart finance chief resigning

By Nick Tabor, New Era Senior Staff Writer

Sam Brown, who has overseen all of Jennie Stuart Medical Center’s financial affairs for the last 15 years, will be leaving the hospital Nov. 2 to work for a medical system in Texas.

Eric Lee, the hospital’s president and chief executive officer, praised Brown’s qualities as a manager and his skill at communicating with the board of trustees. Beyond Brown’s advanced knowledge of health finance, Lee believes these leadership qualities will make him hard to replace.

“It’s not just about bookkeeping,” Lee said Tuesday. “I’ve teased Sam about wanting a clone for his replacement.”

Our Opinion: Public will measure work to fix hospital ER

New Era Staff Editorial

Jennie Stuart Medical Center CEO Eric Lee said in a meeting with our editorial board earlier this summer that the hospital’s emergency department had to improve to meet patient expectations. Addressing complaints from patients who went to the emergency room was a priority when he became the hospital’s top executive in January 2011, Lee said.

Anyone who has lived in Hopkinsville at least a few years has probably heard a story or two about someone who went to the ER and didn’t get the level of care they needed. Often, people describe leaving the ER in Hopkinsville and driving to Clarksville or Nashville for treatment.

Revised ER management at JSMC has changed the culture

By Nick Tabor, New Era Senior Staff Writer

Jennie Stuart Medical Center has experienced hit-and-miss success with the doctor groups that have staffed its emergency room in years past.

At low points — including most of last year, Beth McCraw’s first year as vice president of nursing services — the phone rang continuously with complaint calls. Patients could wait all day for treatment for low-level emergencies, and about 9 percent walked off without getting treatment.

McCraw says Align MD, a Clarksville-based doctor group that took over around early March, has reversed the trend.

“It’s a totally different place down there,” she said Friday.

Local nurses urge mothers to breastfeed their children

By Nick Tabor, New Era Senior Staff Writer

When local nurses rave about the advantages of breastfeeding over infant formula, they sound like they could go on endlessly.

Breast milk passes along antibodies from mother to child, said Jennifer Boone, the certified lactation counselor at the Christian County Health Department. It decreases risks of cancer. It nurtures the brain. It improves night vision, said Jennifer Rush, a lactation counselor at Jennie Stuart Medical Center.

“What else would help with night vision?” Rush said.

Nevertheless, in the most recent data available, from 2007 to 2009, only 38 percent of newborns in Christian County were breastfed, the University of Louisville reports.

JSMC works to address community expectations

CEO of Jennie Stuart Medical Center Eric Lee recently met with New Era Publisher Taylor W. Hayes, Editor Eli Pace and Opinion Editor Jennifer P. Brown to answer questions about the hospital and changes in health care. The interview lasted more than an hour, and in this, the second of a two-part series, the questions are primarily about the hospital and the hospital’s role in the community.

Pace: How is a community hospital fundamentally different from a university or for-profit hospital?

Lee: The biggest difference is at the board level. In a community hospital, like Jennie Stuart Medical Center, you have a strong board who is very committed to keeping its health care, the impact of that health care and the decisions about that health care, and what is available, local. Having local control and the ability of this community to self-determine where we want our health care to go, that is the single biggest advantage we have.

Health care ‘nosing into an air of turbulence’

An interview with Jennie Stuart CEO Eric Lee

CEO of Jennie Stuart Medical Center Eric Lee sat down with Publisher Taylor W. Hayes, Editor Eli Pace and Opinion Editor Jennifer P. Brown recently to answer questions about the hospital and the future of health care in Christian and surrounding counties. The interview lasted more than an hour, and in this, the first of a two-part series, the questions are primarily about the future of Jennie Stuart, the health care industry as a whole and how the Affordable Health Care Act will affect them going forward. Next week, the questions will focus more specifically on Jennie Stuart and the hospital’s role in the community.

Brown: You’ve had a long career, 24 years at Jennie Stuart. With your institutional knowledge of the hospital, the surrounding communities and the health care industry, how do you see Jennie Stuart changing in the next 10 years?

Lee: I really think heath care is nosing into an air of turbulence, and it all starts with the federal government.

Digital records empower many medical patients

Timeline fuzzy for county’s conversion

By Nick Tabor, New Era Senior Staff Writer

Just before Dr. Terry Fuqua closed his internal medicine practice in 2008, he ran ads in the New Era that encouraged patients to come pick up their medical records.

Only about a third of his patients took the offer. So Fuqua destroyed the records from patients who hadn’t visited in more than five years, and he brought the remaining 50 to 75 cases home and stored them in his garage.

He continues shredding records that pass the five-year mark.

He still has word processor documents with detailed notes from patient visits. But since his retirement, he estimates that fewer than a dozen former patients have called him for records.

Fuqua retired on the cusp of a new era. Technological developments are sweeping situations like this into the past. One day nearly all patient records, including those at hospitals and doctors’ offices throughout this area, will survive the way Fuqua’s notes have: on computer hard drives or in cyberspace.

Hospital’s credit rating downgraded

By Nick Tabor, New Era Senior Staff Writer

Because of decreases in business, a small revenue base and a large debt load, a rating agency downgraded the bond credit rating of Jennie Stuart Medical Center this week from BBB+ to BBB.

This means the hospital may have to pay a higher interest rate if it needs to borrow money in the near future.

But Sam Brown, Jennie Stuart’s vice president of financial services, said it won’t affect rates the hospital pays on current loans.

“It really has no impact on our financials at all, currently,” Brown said Thursday. “It’s a little disappointing that we had the downgrade, but it’s happening to a lot of hospitals around the country.”

JSMC credit rating downgraded

Fitch Ratings, one of the three major credit rating agencies in the U.S., downgraded Jennie Stuart Medical Center's rating from BBB+ to BBB. Fitch's analysts cited declines in inpatient the hospital was rendering, a small revenue base, and a large debt load.

The downgrade apparently won't affect the hospital's finances for now. But if it needs to borrow money in the near future, this rating could lead to higher interest rates.

In addition to the story in Friday's paper, the analysts' report is available here as a PDF.