The newly formed health-care giant will tackle Kentucky’s worst health problems
The state’s new health-care giant, KentuckyOne Health, has announced it will invest an additional $30 million in its Heart and Vascular Institute. That comes on top of the $100 million the system says was already committed in that area across the state over the past 10 years.
“Kentucky ranks among the highest in the incidence of coronary, lung, valvular heart and peripheral vascular disease, as well as in smoking and obesity. The list goes on and on,” said Dr. Robert Salley, executive director of cardiovascular services in the Lexington market for KentuckyOne Health.
Last January, the Saint Joseph Health System and Jewish Hospital & St. Mary’s HealthCare came together to form KentuckyOne Health. Salley has been at Saint Joseph since 1996.
“We have to bring to the people of Kentucky the very best cardiac and vascular care we can provide. That will take resources. We must stay on the cutting edge of many of these technologies,” added Salley. “We have the opportunity to be the point of the spear in the Lexington and central and eastern Kentucky market. We can do that with the influx of money and resources.”
The KentuckyOne Health system includes hospitals, clinics, specialty institutes, home health agencies, satellite primary care centers and physician groups. It encompasses more than 80 locations, 2,500 staff physicians and more than 13,000 employees across Kentucky and southern Indiana.
KentuckyOne’s five-county Lexington market has three principal hospitals, including Saint Joseph Main and Saint Joseph East, both in Lexington; and Saint Joseph Jessamine in Nicholasville. In addition, there are smaller Saint Joseph hospitals in the Kentucky cities of London, Mount Sterling and Berea. A branch of the Saint Joseph Heart Institute also has opened in Berea.
John Smithhisler, market leader of Lexington and president of Saint Joseph Hospital, took over his duties in late July.
“From the short time that I have been here, it has become quite clear that cardiovascular service lines at Saint Joseph are exceptional, not only in Kentucky but also within Catholic Health Initiatives and KentuckyOne Health. It shows we should continue to support this service line and be a leader,” Smithhisler explained.
Saint Joseph has been the market leader in cardiovascular services, easily surpassing the market shares of Central Baptist Hospital and University of Kentucky HealthCare. However, UK HealthCare has poured millions of dollars into its cardiovascular service line, more than doubling its market share since 2004, according to UK officials. Could a rivalry be building?
“I think they are chasing us,” Smithhisler quickly countered. “We’ve been the leader for quite a while. I think the question to them is why they would spend all of the money they are spending when there is already a nationally known heart program [here].”
Jeff Murphy, regional director of marketing, communications and public relations at Saint Joseph Health System, elaborated on the leadership role Saint Joseph has enjoyed over the decades.
“If you look back at all of our firsts in heart care, they range from doing the first heart catheterization in 1954 and the first open-heart surgery in central Kentucky in 1959 to Dr. Salley doing the beating heart procedures and Dr. Michael Sekela doing the first minimally invasive DiVinci heart surgery in the state. There is a long list,” said Murphy.
How KentuckyOne’s additional funding for cardiovascular care will be spent has yet to be determined.
“What we’ll do is sit down with clinical leaders in the heart program and begin strategizing how that money would be best used on such things as technology, services and operating room suites,” said Smithhisler.
Smithhisler said the same is true for the timeline for completion of these goals.
“We must be prudent in how we spend the money and recognize that health care is changing and be prepared for how it will be different with the Affordable Care Act. It will take a dialogue,” he said.
The Lexington market leader added that the additional financial commitment gives KentuckyOne Health the opportunity to outreach to smaller communities and to provide mechanisms to those patients, perhaps in a preventative or post-acute care manner.
“We will also expand services through virtual care clinics and telemedicine where communities may not have access to primary care or much access to it,” said Murphy. “There will be partnerships, expanded services and access.”
When asked what impact the Affordable Care Act will have on his company’s business. Smithhisler said he believes most major health-care companies and institutions are moving forward with the provisions of the act.
“I believe that health care will be changing for both economic and political reasons,” he said.
Salley said the issue most important to him as a clinician is that physicians, hospitals, clinics and various caregivers who work for patients day to day will be held to a higher quality standard. “We welcome that. Quality is the bullseye that we strive for,” he said. “If we can still maintain quality in an era of declining resources, then we will have accomplished a great deal for our constituents here in Kentucky.”