Regional Wellness

Florida Hospital's expanding footprint serves as a case study in both ambitious and strategic growth. And healthcare is only part of the story.

On his typically long road trips across Florida, like many people, Mike Schultz has a routine. He often listens to current events and news on XM radio or perhaps an audio book. Other times, he returns phone calls (“hands-free, certainly”).

If he has real time to think, it's usually spent preparing for an upcoming meeting. His miles upon miles, about 30,000 driving miles annually in all, are consumed by anything but the trivial. Who cannot relate?

In some instances, though, he simply finds the weight of an increasingly needy population and a strained system on this shoulders, making his head spin right along with the tires. Most recently, his highway agenda was topped by the Governor's 2012/2013 budget proposal, where the initial plan called for deep cuts to an already-burdened program (Medicaid)—cuts that struck at the very heart of Schultz's operation, and at a time of both great promise and unnerving progress.

Such is the work (and life) of Schultz, president/CEO of the Florida Region, and executive vice president of the Florida Division, of Adventist Health System, the parent organization for Florida Hospital. At present, 15 hospitals are under his watch, each located outside of Metro Orlando, with a 16th nearing arrival. Schultz also provides executive leadership to Florida Hospital Healthcare System, consisting of the seven Orlando-area hospitals.

The Lake Mary resident is headquartered in Orlando but spends 75 percent of his time elsewhere, north in Flagler County, west in Tampa Bay and just farther north in Tarpon Springs. There, impressively, hospital chief execs report to him. Yet, his travels are even more a testament to an ambitiously expanding footprint than the 58-year-old's own ample abilities.

Florida Hospital is on the move, in a big way. And it brings to the Super Region a case study in collaboration, synergy and partnership.

Coming Together

Last September, University Community Health joined Florida Hospital Zephyrhills and Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel to form the new Florida Hospital Tampa Bay Division. UCH had sought a larger partner able to provide size, scope and access to capital. Similarly, with Florida Hospital in Zephryhills located in a fast-growing area, the advantages of a partner facility emerged, giving life to another Florida Hospital in burgeoning Wesley Chapel. Essentially, conversations spawned opportunities, which turned into reality.

At present count, the new Tampa Bay Division is a 1,003-bed system composed of Florida Hospital Tampa (the former University Community Hospital), Florida Hospital Pepin Heart Institute (the former Pepin Heart Hospital), Florida Hospital Carrollwood (the former University Community Hospital-Carrollwood), Florida Hospital at Connerton Long Term Acute Care (the former University Community Health Long Term Acute Care Hospital at Connerton), Florida Hospital Zephyrhills, Helen Ellis Memorial Hospital and Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel (opens 2012) .

In other words, extensive. And necessary.

“As we look at healthcare in the future, we realize there's going to have to be some concentration of service,” says Schultz. “Not every hospital can do everything for everybody. As we look at making sure we take advantage of the economies of scale, we believe in the synergy between Orlando and Tampa, for example.”

Des Cummings Jr., Florida Hospital's executive vice president in Orlando, goes a step further. The founding chair of the Central Florida Partnership, in 2008, says he was personally prompted to lead the organization's regional mission because of a vision that, yes, included healthcare but also encompassed much more. His explanation: “In beginning to look at the opportunities across Central Florida, we realized that now what’s happening around the world is that you’re get areas that are presenting themselves as super regions. These super regions have a much better and bigger impact as they work together in collaboration. We realized that the natural super region between Orlando and Tampa, really spread all across Central Florida, can benefit the whole I-4 corridor from coast to coast.

“The more we studied the going-global opportunity, the more we realized that we would be much more effective if we treated this as a super region, because it would bring much more strength and synergy. When you put Tampa Bay’s strengths and Orlando’s strengths together, you have the ability to compete with the Shanghi’s of the world and the Dubai’s of the world, some of those kinds of locations. If we don’t do that, we would fracture into many different communities with all kinds of entities representing us.”

Also notably, Lars Houmann, president and CEO of Florida Hospital and of the Florida Division of Adventist Health System, is incoming chair of the Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission plus is chair of bioOrlando, an organization dedicated to the development of the life sciences economy in Central Florida.

Healthcare and economic development? Absolutely.

 

Bigger, Better

As for Florida Hospital's newly expanded footprint, the goal is more than a name change, according to John Harding, president and CEO of the new division.

“We are committed to elevating health care in Tampa Bay through greater patient access and higher quality of care,” Harding says. “We are focused on making systemwide enhancements through capital investments, technological advancements, research innovation, strategic healthcare alliances, community outreach, and recruiting and retaining the very best talent.”

Over the next five years, the organization is investing approximately $500 million in Tampa Bay to complete clinical and facility enhancements. Additionally, since December 2010, intent on attracting top talent, the Tampa Bay Division has conducted a salary market survey and review to ensure that all employees are at competitive local and regional wages, while upgrading employee salaries if they are below fair market value. Also for the past year, the division has worked to develop strategic healthcare partnerships, including one with University of South Florida Health to provide greater access to healthcare along with developing research.

Collaboration. Synergy. Partnership. In action.

Schultz believes the synergy will help to reduce healthcare costs for providers, patients and employers at a time when savings could be especially important. Gov. Rick Scott's budget proposal for 2012/2013, for example, targets cuts to Medicaid, a state-federal healthcare program for low-income adults and children that covers 2 million Floridians. Those cuts would come in the form of the state paying less to hospitals that treat Medicaid patients—$2 billion less. Not incidentally, Florida Hospital's seven-hospital system in Metro Orlando is the nation's largest provider of Medicare services.

As an way to minimize that impact, Schultz points to the synergy of newly heightened efficiency at Florida Hospitals facilities across the state, where the implementation of systemwide electronic medical records and physician orders are designed to increase patient safety and provide faster, more accurate access to information.

Another potential money-saver is the creation of the Concert Health Plan, an Adventist Health System subsidiary. The fully insured, locally based health insurance was founded with the goal of improving benefits and reducing costs for small and large Central Florida employers, while staying in tune with the healthcare needs of their employees. The emphases are on service, claims administration and provider network.

“This is designed to take a population of people and better manage their health. And they're incentivized to stay well,” Schultz says.

Taking the Initiative

In keeping with the theme of wellness, Florida Hospital's Healthy 100 is an overarching initiative to promote the benefits of a healthy lifestyle—taking a proactive approach regarding health instead of a reactionary stance (www.healthy100.org). “It's about extending lives and reducing costs,” says Cummings, who is among the authors of the book “8 Secrets to a Healthy 100.”

“It’s the old classic phrase, ‘Doing good, doing well.' If we’re going to solve the healthcare issues of America without bankrupting our society, we’ve got to have a different vision.”

Hospitals, in turn, would then be viewed not as a last resort, but as the first step toward advancing health.

For patients with less hope for a healthy 100, the potential of collaboration, synergy and partnership is evident at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute in Orlando and Florida Hospital. If a Memorandum of Understanding proceeds, the three institution will target cancer and begin work on groundbreaking applications in Personalized Medicine before extending into areas such as diabetes and heart disease.

Moffitt is a recognized leader in cancer care, listed in U.S. News & World Report as one of “America’s Best Hospitals” for cancer. With five research centers and world-class capabilities in drug discovery, stem cells, nanomedicine and translational medicine, Sanford-Burnham is working to discover the next generation of treatments for cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, infectious and inflammatory diseases, diabetes, childhood diseases and many other conditions. Along with Florida Hospital,they will take lifesaving research from discovery through translation into healthcare, delivery to patients and then widespread dissemination to the world.

“When the three of us come together, we hit every phase of medical research,” says Dr. Bill Dalton, Moffitt's president, CEO and center director. “This could have a profound impact.”

Dalton should know. He received the 2010 Leadership in Personalized Medicine Award from the Personalized Medicine Coalition (launched in 2004 to educate the public and policymakers) for his pioneering work putting the concepts of personalized medicine into practice for improved patient outcomes and lower costs. Moffitt’s Total Cancer Care is an approach to enhancing access to evidence-based, personalized cancer treatments and information/decision tools for patients and clinicians. Dedicated for use in development of personalized medicine, Total Cancer Care is one of the largest cancer tumor bio-repositories and data warehouses in the United States. Moffitt has Total Cancer Care consortium members in 10 states.

“When you bring other players with different core competencies,” Dalton says, “the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts.”

Now, add Sanford-Burnham to that equation.

“Partnership is a central strategy of Sanford-Burnham research,” comments Dr. John C. Reed, CEO of Sanford-Burnham. “We look forward to collaborating with Moffitt Cancer Center and furthering our relationship with Florida Hospital. Through partnerships with clinical organizations, we accelerate the translation of laboratory discoveries towards novel therapies to enhance patient care.”

Collaboration. Synergy. Partnership.

And for Schultz, the car rides are getting longer.

 

“The more we studied the going-global opportunity, the more we realized that we would be much more effective if we treated this as a super region, because it would bring much more strength and synergy. When you put Tampa Bay’s strengths and Orlando’s strengths together, you have the ability to compete with the Shanghi’s of the world and the Dubai’s of the world, some of those kinds of locations. If we don’t do that, we would fracture into many different communities with all kinds of entities representing us.”

– Des Cummings Jr., Florida Hospital

 

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Meet Mike Schultz

Finance and hospital administration have consumed much of Mike Schultz's life (in and out of cars). Aside from Florida, our cover subject has worked extensively in California, Illinois, Tennessee, North Carolina and Kentucky. (Not coincidentally, he's a big basketball and football fan while also enjoying golf, snow skiing and boating.) Schultz has been a vice president with Adventist Health System since 2000, initially as president/CEO of the Appalachia Region. He received his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Southern Adventist University in Collegedale, Tenn., and his Master of Business Administration from Loyola University of Chicago.

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Florida Hospital—At A Glance

Florida Hospital | Tampa Bay Division

• Florida Hospital Tampa
• Florida Hospital Pepin Heart Institute
• Florida Hospital Carrollwood
• Florida Hospital Zephyrhills
• Florida Hospital at Connerton Long Term Acute Care Center
• Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel (Opens 2012)
• Helen Ellis Memorial Hospital

Florida Hospital | Flagler/Volusia Division

• Florida Hospital DeLand
• Florida Hospital Fish Memorial
• Florida Hospital Flagler
• Florida Hospital Memorial Medical Center
• Florida Hospital Oceanside

Florida Hospital | Orlando Division

• Florida Hospital Altamonte
• Florida Hospital Apopka
• Florida Hospital Celebration Health
• Florida Hospital East Orlando
• Florida Hospital Kissimmee
• Florida Hospital Orlando
• Florida Hospital Waterman
• Florida Hospital Winter Park
• Memorial Hospital

Florida Hospital | Heartland Division

• Florida Hospital Heartland Medical Center
• Florida Hospital Lake Placid
• Florida Hospital Wauchula

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Fit-Friendly Company

Quite apparently, Orlando Health isn't only focused on healing patients. Central Florida’s fifth-largest employer, serving 1.6 million area residents and nearly 3,000 international patients annually, is also intent on keeping its employees healthy.

Recently, Orlando Health was recognized as a Platinum-Level Start! Fit-Friendly Company by the American Heart Association. The Start! initiative is designed to help employees eat better and move more. Orlando Health is one of 215 platinum level Fit-Friendly Companies nationwide.

Platinum-level employers are cited for offering employees physical activity options in the workplace; increasing healthy eating options at the worksite; promoting a wellness culture in the workplace; implementing at least nine criteria outlined by the AMA in the areas of physical activity, nutrition and culture; and demonstrating measurable outcomes related to workplace wellness.

Orlando Health has an employee wellness program called Healthy U, established to provide information about health promotion and disease management programs, and products, plans and services at Orlando Health. Healthy U initiatives also include health fairs with free dance/fitness sampler sessions, healthy food tastings/samplings and Healthy U Minutes (movement to music activity) in meetings.

“We are creating an environment that supports and influences healthy living among team members and the community through various programs, initiatives and resources,” comments Lee O’Donnell, Orlando Health's corporate manager of Lifestyle Medicine.

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 A Healthier Tampa Bay

How healthy is Tampa Bay?

In 2010, that question sparked the ONE BAY: Healthy Communities initiative, which led to a comprehensive report, released last February, that provides a benchmark for the health of the eight-county Tampa Bay region. Now this month, some 500 city and county government leaders, health professionals, civic organizers, educators, parents and others have been invited to help “create the vision and agenda for a healthier Tampa Bay in the next 50 years.”

In addition, ONE BAY: Healthy Communities—one of three initiatives under the regional visioning process called ONE BAY—will announce the launch of a national initiative called “The Race to a Healthy America.” Inspired by authors Jonathan Fleece and David Houle of “The New Health Age,” Tampa Bay seeks to engage regional leaders in a common agenda that policy makers, employers and citizens will rally behind to promote well-educated and healthy citizens.

Tags: economy, healthcare, leadership, Orlando, Tampa