Ozarks Profile: Kim Day

Finding enough time in the day to do what I want to do, particularly as we go through the process right now of trying to replace my previous position as chief financial officer. It’s well under way, and we hope to have that position filled by February. But in the interim, as we’re trying to transition from my old role into my new role, it does put pressures on time. There’s a lot of exciting things that we’re doing here (and) we want to be able to move forward.

Tell us about your past experience (with St. John’s or otherwise); how does that experience fit with your current position?

Probably the most benefit from my previous position is really that I have the advantage of knowing the leadership team. At St. John’s we’re fortunate that we have a really strong leadership team that has been here for the last five to six years working together. We’re fortunate that we don’t have a need to make a lot of changes. The fact that I can come in, being part of St. John’s in the past … makes the process move … more efficiently.

What are some goals St. John’s is pursuing?

We have three areas of focus: service, quality and patient safety. I have to say that St. John’s is really all about service. Our goal is to have our satisfaction scores in the 90th percentile by June of 2006 for patients, visitors and employees. In my opinion, a formula that includes patients that are pleased with our service, and physicians and employees that are happy with St. John’s as an employee, is a formula for success. We’re also in the process of replacing all of our information systems, primarily to enhance operational efficiency and patient safety. Our goal is that when we get the new information systems in place, we’ll have a single patient record that goes across our entire company, including all of our physician offices and our hospitals.

What are the biggest challenges on the horizon for St. John’s Health System?

First of all, it’s the aging population and the demand for services. What happens is as that demand for services continues to increase with growth of the aging population, it puts more upward pressures on state and federal budgets. As a result, we continue to see reductions in federal payers, which then puts upward pressures on health care costs for other employers.

How are you meeting those challenges?

Two things come into play: First, St. John’s is in the process of significant facility replacement, renewal and expansion. … We are trying to position ourselves, from a facilities perspective, to be able to meet the demand. In addition to that, we’re also putting in new technology that we think will make us more efficient and create a safer environment for patients.

What effects is St. John’s seeing from the recent cuts to Missouri’s Medicaid program? What does that mean to health care on a “big picture” basis?

The Medicaid program in the state of Missouri, historically, has been a good and strong program, and covered a significant number of individuals that needed access to care. However, the recent Medicaid cuts did have an impact financially on St. John’s, with a reduction in reimbursement of about $6 million for the current fiscal year. Our concern is that … reducing the eligibility requirements increases the number of people that now no longer have access to care, and therefore they start to access care in other venues that are more expensive, such as the emergency room.

What we would hope is that the state can find, through the budgeting process, the ability to increase reimbursement, and bring back up the level of eligibility requirements, and give these people access to less costly care through more appropriate venues, such as doctors’ offices.

In light of ongoing federal investigations into Medicare billing procedures and practices at CoxHealth, can you speak about preventive measures that St. John’s has in place to avoid such issues?

St. John’s always has the ability to learn in those types of situations. But St. John’s has an effective compliance program, and we report quarterly to our board of directors on the status of any issues that we have relative to compliance. We put a lot of time and resources into managing our compliance program. The industry is very complex. We’re heavily regulated, and that requires us to have a lot of resources and individuals, on a daily basis, looking at these regulations to make sure that we can stay compliant.

While you aren’t new to management in health care, you’re now at the top of the health system. What’s your leadership philosophy?

Probably the thing that drives me most, St. John’s is here to serve the community, and for every decision that we make, we have to make sure that the community feels that we add value. We are a not-for-profit organization, and … we have an obligation to give back to the community.

Tell us about your family.

First of all, I have a new grandson – my first grandchild, Franklin Joseph Robinson. He’s four weeks old. It’s really pretty cool. There’s also my wife, and our four grown kids – my main focus in life.

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