2014 Business Class Honoree: CoxHealth

As the digital age continues to expand horizons and extend the reach of human knowledge, insight and influence, one of the area’s largest employers is focused on the smallest increment – one.

“We have a strategic direction to have one chart, one bill, one contracting signature, by integrating all our (information technology) platforms,” says CoxHealth CEO Steve Edwards. “It’s the beginning of a foundation to simplify things to the point that – wherever a patient comes to us, inpatient, outpatient, physician office, a retail clinic at Wal-Mart – [providers] all see the same thing.”

Working closely with Kansas City’s Cerner Corp., CoxHealth’s efforts are being used as a model of transformation, creating a template that will help similar health systems launch their own electronic health record systems and move toward the “one patient, one record” concept, something Edwards says most systems are struggling with.

CoxHealth is a model in other ways as well. With more than a century of Springfield history and more than 7,000 locally-based doctors, nurses administrative and support staff, it is a unique example of community health care. In the past decade, Cox has racked up a consistent string of rankings as a Top 100 Integrated Healthcare System by health care analytics firm SDI and repeat recognition as a Best Regional Hospital by U.S. News & World Report.

Service offerings now include five hospitals across the Ozarks, an integrated physician network of more than 670 primary and specialty care doctors, 80 clinics in 25 communities, multiple outpatient specialty facilities and a health plans component, as well as the nation’s second-largest hospital-based home health agency, Oxford HealthCare.

New initiatives also are underway to expand key service components and extend care to a greater segment of the 900,000 individuals in its regional service area. At Springfield’s Cox South hospital, new construction is underway on a $130 million patient tower that will add 310,000 square feet and 80 inpatient beds, creating a women’s and children’s “hospital within a hospital” and offering further focused specialty care.

The 2012 acquisition of Cox Medical Center Branson is now giving way to the construction of a $30.8 million emergency department in the music city. The move into Branson presents unique challenges and Edwards says the new addition will better equip the health system to meet the needs of up to 60,000 patients in that community who require care each year.

“One of the challenges for us in Branson is the seasonality of the tourist industry,” he says. “For five months of the year it has one of the busiest volumes of any emergency department in the state, and for the other seven months it’s a lot lower. We need to create a more efficient space for them, and that’s a big part of our focus.”

Health care is about people, and last year the system saluted staff efforts with its “100 Ways You Make us Great” campaign. Edwards says in fiscal 2014, CoxHealth plans to take notice of the myriad ways that team members are making a difference outside the bounds of their job descriptions.

“It’s especially rewarding, because it’s really an organic thing,” he says.[[In-content Ad]]