Posted: Feb. 24, 2010

Town of Summit — As the Summit Aurora Medical Center is on the cusp of opening March 1, the Focus caught up with chief executive officer there, Fran Finley. Amid the hustle and bustle in preparation for the public reveal of the 110-bed hospital and health campus Finley has also had a chance to catch up on current media coverage in anticipation for the event, we asked her for her response on recent reports among other questions.

QWhat are your main goals for the first year of operation?

AProgram development. We have 500 employees hired right now, and as the volume goes up, we will have around 700 full-time and part-time employees.

QMany have reacted negatively to the new facility after Aurora laid off some of its employees. A comment to a recent article posted on jsonline.com said, "Guess they forgot all about the 300+ employees they laid off last June and what financial impact that has made to all those people, especially those that had been with Aurora for 20+ years who suddenly found themselves jobless and uninsured."

What's your response to that?

AThat is incorrect. The company did some corporate realignment and looked at marketing and PR. There's misunderstanding there that the employees were given options for re-employment. We also brought construction jobs here (with the new center's construction). When you put up a new building, you hire local people, local vendors. There will actually be a sign at the open house that will list these people.

Q So why build here? Why Summit/Oconomowoc?

A We have 65,000 households to serve through the Aurora Wilkinson Clinic, which now being located here gives people a place for inpatient/outpatient care without having to drive. You also have to consider the growth corridor (Milwaukee to Madison).

Q What if the growth in this area doesn't go as anticipated?

A Our growth plan here is not a three- to five-year plan, it's a 50-year plan. This hospital will become an economic anchor for this area for years to come.

Q What's different or new at this medical center?

AOne aspect is SMART CHART, an electronic health record that connects patients. From patient safety aspect, if they come to the doctor at the clinic or come to the hospital, we can look up their chart, find their record of meds or allergies. Or if they come into the emergency room and can't speak, we can look them up through this system. With this, the quality goes up. There is "hard-wired" information in this system too; for example, if someone is having a heart attack, staff can pull up heart attack order set of treatment. This increases efficiency and reduces costs of improper treatment.

Also, if you look at the building, you'll notice a healing environment through natural light, artwork and colors. It's quiet, there is no overhead paging, the carpet reduces noise, we have a healing garden and mediation room.

QWhat plans does Aurora have to integrate itself with the community?

A Well, we've been participating through the Wilkinson Clinic for many years. Do we have more opportunities? Absolutely. We met with the Free Clinic recently to go over their needs. It's not just having walks but it's community education, presence on boards and our conference center where we can host community events.

QCan you comment on skepticism this new hospital will increase healthcare costs by building where there already is an existing hospital?

APeople need to understand it's a not-for-profit, not nonprofit, which means anything left goes back to the facility, staff and community. It's an old argument about driving up healthcare costs with more competition. But competition drives the bar up and helps us be more effective with our resources. We also have another piece of the equation here. We are integrated, and under one roof, not duplicated.

QWhat are top things that will be treated here?

ACardiac, women's health, neuro and cancer. You may ask why those; the answer is if you look at the population and its chronic needs, those are the four you hit the most.

QHas there been any trial and error from previous Aurora locations that will be changed here?

AYes, each time we start a new Aurora it's a learning experience. For example, how things flow for the patient and how people work in the patient rooms. One example of this is you will notice stands with laptops in the rooms. We learned it's easier for the nurse to use a laptop in each room to log information for that patient, and then move on instead of carrying a laptop or chart.

QThe public is invited to an open house on Saturday, anything you'd like to say about the event?

A You can learn more about the physicians; there will be kids activities.