Page 25 - 2014-nov-dec

Healthcare Journal of new orleans INOV / DEC 2014 25
hospitals we’ll tie it together. All of our pur-
chasing will be in a big bundle. As we pur-
chase large pieces of equipment, instead of
buying one MRI, we’ll buy two or three and
get a much better price point on that than if
we would just go to the market on our own.
So there are some tremendous benefits to us
as individual member hospitals to be part
of a system.
Editor Are there some unique opportunities,
too, for collaboration? Each of the hospitals
seems to have a very distinct personality. Are
there opportunities for partnership or are
they going to remain independent and sim-
ply under one governing board?
Mary Perrin I think both. And we’ve talked
about that a lot in our strategic planning
sessions. We do have very different person-
alities and even our patient populations are
different; there’s not a lot of crossover. But
there are some real synergies that I think we
get when we come together. Touro is a very
large birthing hospital in the community so
there’s a tremendous benefit to us to being a
partner of a large birthing hospital. As chil-
dren are born at Touro, if they need special-
ized care we’re right here. And as our partner
that’s kind of a built in referral for us.
With ILH, they are a teaching hospital and
we are a teaching hospital and we have many
of the same players who go back and forth. I
think it helps us in terms of our partnership
with LSU that we are all operating from the
same page. ILH has had a very strong mis-
sion in the community to care for the under-
served. Children’s has done that as well. So
I think there are a lot of things we have in
common. Different age group, but a lot of
things we help them with and through.
Editor Will you share an electronic health
record?
Mary Perrin We are not currently on the same
EMR, but one of the things we are looking at
as a system is contracting for our electronic
medical record as one entity.
Editor Are there any specialties that you are
having difficulty recruiting?
Mary Perrin I wouldn’t say anything in par-
ticular. There was a time when we were hav-
ing some difficulty, I think in the commu-
nity at large, bringing professionals into the
community from other areas. In pediatrics
when you recruit a pediatric neurosurgeon
or a pediatric rheumatologist or a pediatric
cardiovascular surgeon those guys aren’t in
groups or large numbers in any particular
community so we do recruit on a national
basis for almost all of our physician posi-
tions. There was a time, I think, when we
were having some difficulty encouraging
folks to come and look at New Orleans,
particularly after Katrina. But I think that’s
changed and actually I just had a resume on
my desk this morning from someone who
talked about how interested they were in
NewOrleans because of our uniqueness as a
city and they had heard a lot about the qual-
ity of life lately. So that’s changed, I would
say, in the past three years or so. I’ve noticed
a real difference which is wonderful. Those
of us who have lived here our whole lives
understand and know how important this
city and its culture is to us and how good
the quality of life has been at times so it is
exciting for other people to feel that as well.
Editor Can you give us a quick overview of
your payer mix? Do you get much insured
money or are you dependent on donations?
Mary Perrin We are quite honestly heavily
leaning toward the Medicaid population.
We do have patients with commercial insur-
ance as well, but the majority are covered by
Louisiana Medicaid; it’s about 70%. There’s
also free care, some self-pay. We do rely on
donations. We have a telethon. We do a lot
of fundraising in the community, which is
very supportive of Children’s Hospital. And
that’s pretty typical for children’s hospitals in
most places. That’s a very important funding
source for us as well.
Editor What is the function and importance
of your satellite facilities?
Mary Perrin We have three standing satellite
clinics. We have one in Metairie around the
Galleria, and that’s a subspecialty clinic. It’s
just more convenient for patients and we