Ground broken on St. Luke's Meridian Hospital

St. Luke's Regional Medical Center and Meridian city officials have broken ground on the new community hospital in Meridian. When completed, the new hospital will include a six-story tower that will house obstetrical services, operating rooms, an intensive care unit, a cardiac cath lab, a 24-hour emergency department and inpatient beds for adults and children. The expansion will complement the existing outpatient and physician services provided at St. Luke's Meridian Medical Center.

The hospital will initially include 62 inpatient beds and two unfinished floors allowing the hospital to gradually expand to 146 beds to meet projected population growth in Treasure Valley. "St. Luke's Board anticipated the need for inpatient services in Meridian many years ago. This new hospital will address the area's need for additional hospital beds and will bring hospital services closer to people's homes," stated St. Luke's Board Chairman, Steve Beebe.

Studies indicate that population growth in the Treasure Valley will require the addition of 110 hospital beds by 2005. Area hospitals have already begun to experience occasional bed shortages, a situation projected to increase along with continued area growth.

"Without this new hospital, our region would face significant bed shortages," said St. Luke's President and CEO, Ed Dahlberg. "We're so pleased to be breaking ground on this much needed hospital and we look forward to opening it for this community in 2002."

The new hospital will provide 24-hour emergency services, a full range of inpatient care and additional outpatient services. Chuck Gersdorf, administrator for St. Luke's Meridian Medical Center estimates that the current staff of 120 full-time employees will increase to 460 once the community hospital opens.

St. Luke's Meridian Medical Center currently provides a wide range of outpatient services including outpatient surgery, urgent care, diagnostic imaging that includes CT scans, mammography, laboratory, diagnostic cardiac testing, occupational health services, rehabilitation therapy and an outpatient pharmacy.

Since opening in April 1996, patient visits to St. Luke's Meridian campus have exceeded all projections. To date, nearly 250,000 patients have received diagnostic services or other outpatient care at the Meridian facility.

"We are delighted to have St. Luke's expand their hospital services in Meridian", said Meridian Mayor Robert O. Corrie. "With the continued growth of Meridian and the rest of the Treasure Valley, this hospital will be a great asset for us all."

St. Luke's is a 501c3, non-profit hospital that is governed by a community-based volunteer board of directors. In addition to its downtown Boise hospital, St. Luke's operates the Mountain States Tumor Institute in Boise and Nampa, and manages hospitals in Gooding, Blaine County and McCall. Along with the building project in Meridian, St. Luke's is in the process of building a new hospital in Blaine County, that will replace that community's two aging hospitals.
 

Richard A. DuBose, MD, announces the opening of the Idaho Pain Center. Originally from El Paso, Texas, DuBose is a graduate of Brigham Young University and attended medical school at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston. DuBose trained initially in anesthesiology at Yale University, after which he spent eight years in Texas practicing adult and pediatric anesthesia. During this time, he developed a keen interest in the area of pain medicine. DuBose left practice in 1997 to become the Longwood Area Combined Pain Fellow at Harvard Medical School, Boston. In 1998 he relocated to Columbia, South Carolina to become medical director of The Center for Pain Management. In his current position as founder and director of the Idaho Pain Center, DuBose's goal is to provide multi-modal therapy for acute and chronic pain of all origins in a cost-effective, multi-disciplinary manner. DuBose is a diplomat of the American Board of Pain Medicine and the American Board of Anesthesiology, a member of the American Pain Society, the International Association for the Study of Pain and the International Spinal Injection Society, and serves as the chairman of the Public Information Committee for the American Academy of Pain Medicine. The Idaho Pain Center is located at 8620 Emerald Street, Suite 120 in Boise; telephone (208) 323-6273.
 

Saint Alphonsus announces the "Trauma Truck" mobile emergency response education classroom, which will cover the hospital's service region of southwestern Idaho, eastern Oregon and northern Nevada. The truck and emergency personnel will travel to communities to conduct training and education on emergency techniques and procedures for first responders, normally the first on-scene in trauma situations.

Funded by monies generated through community support of the 1998 Festival of Trees, the "Trauma Truck" has its first training session scheduled for November at Cascade Memorial Hospital in Cascade, Idaho.

The twenty-foot long truck is also equipped with an interactive computer lab that is designed to educate students and first-responders in many different types of emergency medicine, beginning with basic anatomy and physiology.
 

Primary Health, Inc. has launched a health care initiative aimed at helping asthma patients to better manage their medical condition. The initiative is based on an innovative health care delivery concept known as "disease management". The concept is a simple but powerful one: physicians and medical staff collect "best practice" data on managing a particular medical condition, then educate patients, physicians and staff on how to better control and maintain the condition. The ultimate benefits are a healthier patient population and lower health care costs.

The Primary Health Asthma Management Program was created through a partnership with Key Schering Pharmaceuticals. Primary Health physician Dr. Jodean Elliott-Blakeslee was responsible for organizing and implementing the program, which is managed out of Primary Health Meridian Towers Clinic by Drs. Robert Smith and Kathleen Romito.

"We've identified 1,500 Primary Health patients who could benefit from this program," said Dr. Smith. "We chose asthma as our first target for disease management because patients who don't understand their asthma usually aren't getting the full benefit from the state-of-the-art treatments available. Because of this, they suffer more health problems and require more emergency room and hospital visits. Upon completing this program, our asthma sufferers will be experts at monitoring their own symptoms at home. They'll know how to adjust their home treatment programs before they get into trouble, and they'll be healthier."

How the Program Works: Having identified potential program participants, Primary Health has contacted them through the mail. Respondents begin with a visit to Drs. Smith and Romito to establish a baseline regarding their health status. At this point, the physicians can begin implementation of the asthma program. This includes a review of the patient's medication options, techniques for measuring the status of their condition using a peak flow meter, and effective use of medications and learning about the effects of the medications on their body. Follow-up visits take place a month later and at the end of the first year of the program, and information is shared with the patient's designated primary physician.

The Disease Management Concept: The Primary Health Asthma Management Program is being conducted as a pilot effort. According to Primary Health Medical Director Dr. Robert Gilbert, the program is the first of its kind among Idaho medical groups, and is consistent with the company's model of physician-directed health care. Following an evaluation, Primary Health plans to develop a pediatric version of the program. It is also looking at other high-risk diseases within its patient base that may be suitable candidates for future disease management programs.
 

Primary Health/WorkCare Northwest Inc. join forces to create comprehensive workers' care/compensation plan.

Treasure Valley Business Alliance offers employers medical management services, broader choice and access, and lower costs.

Primary Health has created a new workers' compensation insurance plan in partnership with underwriter WorkCare Northwest Inc. The joint effort is being marketed to southwest Idaho employers as the Treasure Valley Business Alliance Inc. (TVBA).

"For the first time, Idaho employers will be able to purchase an all-inclusive workers' compensation insurance plan that bundles an extensive specialist network, broadly distributed primary care clinics, hospital resources, case management and claims management services --- all of which are backed by an A+ rated insurance company," said Stuart Vogelman, vice president of marketing for Primary Health, Inc.

The Treasure Valley Business Alliance is aimed at companies with 5 to 100 employees, and is expected to compete effectively with the State Insurance Fund. While the insurance premiums associated with TVBA are expected to average 20 percent below those of the State Insurance Fund, other aspects of the program are expected to deliver even greater benefits to employers. Chief among these is case management, which will be overseen by Primary Health's medical director and board-certified occupational medicine specialist, Dr. Michael Parker.

"TVBA was really designed to reduce the claims costs associated with on-the-job injuries," noted Vogelman. "Employers not only are looking for good insurance rates, they want the medical community to tell them how to improve the quality, cost and outcomes of the services they are purchasing. Most important, they want to be sure that employees get back to work as soon as medically advisable. These are the kinds of benefits that traditional insurance companies simply can't provide. TVBA does."

In cases where TVBA customers are also providing their group medical plans through Primary Health, employees have the added convenience of receiving their work and personal, illnesses and injuries treatment through the same system of care.

About WorkCare Northwest, Inc.: WorkCare Northwest, Inc. is a Boise-based insurance underwriting administrator specializing in managed care workers' compensation insurance. The company provides comprehensive products and services designed to control and reduce the costs associated with on-the-job injuries and work-related illnesses. Its products are insured through Everest National Insurance Company, an "A+" rated insurance provider. The company is located at 2404 Bank Drive, Suite 302, Boise, Idaho, 83705. For more information about WorkCare Northwest and its products and services, contact Edward Galtney, executive vice president of sales and marketing at (208) 342-6100. ---TP