Keeping you “well and good” by making a care delivery transformation
In my time as CEO here at the hospital, I have focused on specific goals for LMH that direct and improve what we can provide for this community. Like most other healthcare organizations, we have had to make changes along the way to ensure that we deliver what our community needs from us. At LMH, we’re making BIG changes… but we want to make sure you know why we’re doing it.
When you need medical care, you just want your doctor to make you feel better. In a perfect world, your doctor’s office would stay in touch with you, the hospital, and any other specialists or healthcare professionals who treated you, so that everyone would be on the same page and working together to keep you healthy.
But the truth is, we don’t live in a perfect world.
What’s happening now is that doctors are generally paid for every service they provide for you. This can lead to you having to go through and pay for tests and screenings that you may not really need. Or you could need to have the same test or screening performed multiple times, because you see different physicians that are trying to treat the same problem. This kind of duplication does not really help you or the providers who are treating you… instead, it just makes things take longer and cost more.
Hospitals around the country – including Logansport Memorial Hospital – know that this is happening and understand that it is frustrating for our physicians and patients. That’s why we are trying to address the issue by making some changes to the way we provide care for you.
But we also know that change can be confusing, so we want to help you understand what’s happening. You’re going to start seeing and hearing more about how Logansport Memorial Hospital is becoming a Patient-Centered Medical Home and Accountable Care Organization. All that really means is that we will have much more of a team-based approach to caring for you. This team – including your primary care provider, nurses, health coaches, care coordinators, and others – are going to depend on you to take an active role in your healthcare. Your team will work with you and listen to you to determine what you need and want for your health. Then, they will work together to coordinate the services that you receive from us, from other specialists, and from community agencies and organizations.
Implementing these changes means that our doctors and providers at Logansport Memorial Hospital will work on keeping you as healthy as you can be. We want to treat you – and all of our patients – as a whole person, focused not only on healing you when you’re sick, but helping you stay healthy. It’s our mission to make your health our passion, and we’re passionate about this because we believe it’s the right thing to do – for you.
So let’s recap, okay? We now deliver care by placing you, the patient, at the center of your care decisions. This means that the most important person in the process is YOU! For these changes we’re making to work, we need you to take an active role in your own health and well-being too. It’s true that we still don’t live in a perfect world, but lots of us in the healthcare community – especially those of us at Logansport Memorial Hospital – are working hard to make it better.
Feel free to contact me at any time – at the hospital, in the community – if you have additional questions about these ongoing changes. You can also visit www.logansportmedicalhome.org to learn more.
