CoxHealth was a 2010 honoree at Springfield Business Journal's 2010 Dynamic Dozen awards. Information was accurate at the time of the honor. Click here for information about this year's event.In a challenging year, CoxHealth has maintained local jobs and invested in major projects, coming out ahead in a marketplace where many businesses are fighting to hang on.
“People tend to get sick regardless of what happens on Wall Street, so (the recession) hasn’t affected the total volume of care we provide,” said Bob Bezanson, CoxHealth president and CEO.
That steady volume, however, also can create challenges.
“Our funding streams are starting to decrease, and that’s got us concerned,” Bezanson said, particularly in regard to Medicare and Medicaid.
He noted, though, that CoxHealth’s uninsured population has nearly doubled.
CoxHealth brought in $1.95 billion in revenues in 2009, delivering 3,914 babies, completing 28,435 ambulance transports and performing 55,258 surgeries. At the same time, Bezanson said, “Charity care, bad debt and write-offs were almost $120 million.”
Some areas of care in particular are growing, including outpatient surgery and cardiology, and Bezanson noted that CoxHealth’s effort to improve access to care through its five area Wal-Mart clinics seems to have taken some pressure off the emergency room.
At the beginning of the recession, the health system saw a dramatic drop in elective services, and especially surgery, but he noted that CoxHealth had its largest-ever surgical volume in December 2009. People had met their deductibles, he said, and patients were making sure to undergo those procedures before the end of the year.
CoxHealth employs 8,968 people, including 537 on-staff physicians and 1,644 registered nurses. Despite the recession, it has been able to keep all employees in place.
“While health care’s not immune to layoffs and no employer can ever say never, we told our employees last year we’d do everything we could to avoid layoffs,” Bezanson said. “We’ve been able to keep that commitment.”
While there was some job creation in 2009, it has slowed from previous years. At the same time, CoxHealth’s human resources department received about 70,000 job applications. But there’s an upside: “We get to select the best candidates,” Bezanson said.
CoxHealth also is in a position to train candidates through Cox College and the system’s Family Medicine Residency program.
In January, CoxHealth announced that it and St. John’s will work with the University of Missouri School of Medicine in Columbia this year to identify ways to increase medical school enrollment and expand educational opportunities and address a provider shortage in 108 of the state’s 114 counties.
CoxHealth also underwent facilities growth and added new technologies in 2009, moving ahead on its $119 million expansion plan. That plan includes a new emergency department, an employee parking garage, the conversion of Cox Walnut Lawn into the Meyer Orthopedic Center and the recently completed outpatient surgery center.
Of all these projects, Bezanson is most excited about the new emergency department, slated to open in August or September 2011.
It will have two CT scanners, two MRI units, 26 observation beds and 67 treatment rooms.
“There’s no question in my mind, the day it opens it will be the most advanced emergency department in the country,” he said.[[In-content Ad]]
