- Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Rotary's weekly celebration of service. I always want to say
- service of celebration, whichever it works. My name's Tracy Yovanovich, and I'm honored to serve as
- your president this year. Again, yes, Mike, I'm back. So let's start off with our We're in the World.
- Oh, look at that, it worked. So Fairbanks Alaska, the club in Fairbanks Alaska is 84 years old, has
- 95 members,
- now this is going to come as shock. Who do you think their partner club is with? It is with San Ignacio
- Cayo Belize. Now I wonder why that is. Anybody? Because you got Alaska up here that's freezing and you
- got Belize down here. What better place to go and do cross pollination, right? So I thought that was
- pretty interesting. But what I thought also was fascinating, they
- They do long-term plans, projects, if you will, and they invested $500,000 into a large playground for
- the community in addition to the partnership work that they do on sanitation locations down in Belize.
- So again, in the spirit of understanding what all the different clubs out in this wonderful world do,
- that's a look at Fairbanks, Alaska. And next, I would like to invite Mike Wade up
- And if you could go ahead and take that down. Mike Wade, if you could come up and give the reflection.
- And I apologize for the crampness of this. We're working through State Room East. Good afternoon. We
- spent about a week or so ago. We went and visited our granddaughter for her first birthday, our family,
- with our daughter as the mother of their grand
- child, and then her husband's family, who were a hearing family, they're a non hearing family. And so
- there was a lot of communication between the two families to get everybody's needs met, get everybody
- on the same page. That kind of reminded me of the first part of the four way test. Is it the truth?
- I mean, you've got to put your needs and so on right on the table.
- Consideration of everybody's feelings and needs. When are we going to eat? When are we going to sleep?
- How soon is the baby going to be up? Who takes care of this or that? Kind of reminded me of the second
- principle. Is it fair at all concerned? And the focus on nurturing, celebrating, and understanding what
- everybody was trying to do from the littlest, who was one, up to the oldest, who was
- 77, let's say, will it build goodwill and better friendship? All of these activities did. And all parties
- contributed efforts all in their own capacity to making the young family feel supported and valued by
- both sides of this. And so it was definitely beneficial to all concerned. And although
- It was difficult at times, trying to get up at certain times, trying to take a nap at certain times.
- You weren't able to eat what you felt like you weren't able to. But it was definitely fun, and we're
- still sharing pictures, and we're still talking about it. Thank you. It's amazing the way the four-way
- test comes into play in everyday life. So thank you for sharing that, Mike. Andrea, if you would share
- our guests.
- Tracy. I'm Andrea Murray, and I am announcing our guest here today. Brianna Shalala. Is that correct?
- Okay. And she's the guest of our speaker, Denzel Ross. Are there? Oh, yes. We usually ask folks to if
- you're able to stand so people can recognize you. Are there any guests online?
- Andrea, there are no guests online today. All right. All right. And in the spirit of no, there are no
- birthdays. And Tyler, if you could go ahead and put the screen back up. And there's no anniversaries
- this week. So I think back to school week, there's a lot of people out and getting that last vacation
- in must have been a tradition for many, many years, I guess.
- All right, so we have lots of announcements. First of all, global scholar Megan Gerhart sent an update
- to Mr. Rotary, Jim Bright, and she is in Prague working on a CELTA certification to teach English to
- foreign learners around the world, and she's doing great. Jim Bright, who, okay, I just have to say,
- I pulled into the parking lot today and I saw this fluorescent orange Maverick truck, and I'm like,
- My goodness, that looks like Jim Bright's because nobody else is driving that thing from Ford. That
- looks like Jim Bright's truck. Don't tell me he's here. You had prostate surgery last week and you are
- here, which is amazing. So let's give it up for Jim and glad to have you here. But maybe Anne should
- be on you more because I don't know if you should be here, but we're happy to have you all the time.
- And a big thank you to Alon and Marilyn. I don't know how much you all, actually I know you don't see
- all the sausage making that happens behind the scenes, but they have been working a lot on the roundabout
- to improve the technology, to minimize the amount of work that the reporters are doing. We're still
- working through that, but I just want to share with everyone that there has been a lot of work and a
- big thank you to both of them for those efforts that are out there.
- And I just also wanted to share, because you know I'm plugging Ignite, I used the Ignite to find Mike
- Wade's address to make sure I got it out. It took two seconds, because Mike, you have a J after the
- M, just to throw me. And I couldn't find it, so I had to look it up. So I used my handy-dandy Ignite
- app. So it is very worthwhile. And then not up on there, because we have last-minute add-ons.
- Next week, the community service committee will be meeting here after the team club meeting. And then
- we have today, the Bloomington Rotary Foundation will be meeting directly after our meeting. And then
- I wanna announce our new member from DSI, Lindsay, if you would stand, she has joined us with DSI as
- our organizational member. And then lastly, what's next week? We may have to find parking.
- at Henderson and one of the other lots. So just be aware, students will be back in full force next week.
- So I can see the smile on Hank's face as I brought that up. So the union's going to be full. OK, and
- back to what I said earlier, we'll put this in the roundabout. But if you don't have the Ignite app
- on your phone, it's very simple. Martha and I did it last week.
- And then Martha messed it up and we're gonna fix it again because it's easy. So this is a way for you
- to get on and become really, really hip with an app and impress your family. And then finally, hopefully
- everyone has submitted some recipes. Our district governor, Matt Milley, who's gonna be visiting with
- us on October 6th is collecting recipes. So if you have favorite recipes, please share those.
- And on that, I think we can take the,
- On that, we have the best time, a new member induction. If we could, I'd like to ask Ron Barnes,
- Jim Bright, and Shane Gibson to come forward, please. And as they're coming forward, I will read Shane's
- bio. Shane Gibson is an entrepreneur, poet, songwriter, and educator. He is the broker owner of Sweet
- Maple Realty and co-author of Wake Up Woods and the forthcoming Wake Up Wetlands. From an early age,
- Shane's dad immersed him in nature through fishing, hunting,
- searching for more morale mushrooms, walking farm fields for historical artifacts, and simply playing
- outside. Those experiences grew into a lifelong passion for the outdoors. With degrees in environmental
- science and elementary education from my youth, Shane has spent much of his career helping others discover
- the natural world as a teacher, naturalist, and an environmental educator. His past roles include serving
- as environmental education director at both Bradford Woods and Sycamore Land Trust.
- He enjoys blending his love and nature with education, literature, and writing. Shane lives in Monroe
- County, Indiana with his wife, Taji, and enjoys watching his sons, Tanner and Sawyer, pursue adventures
- of their own. And with that, Ron will read the induction. I want to hear more about those morel mushrooms.
- Shane Gibson, on behalf of the board and members of the Bloomington Rotary Club, it's great pleasure
- to welcome you as the newest member of our club. We look forward to fellowship that we will share, as
- well as your participation in club projects that make our club, community, and country a better place.
- Though Rotary is not a political organization, Rotarians are virtually concerned with good citizenship,
- with the election of effective leaders to public office. While Rotary is not a religious organization,
- It is built on those highest principles that have served as a moral compass for people throughout the
- ages. Rotary is an organization of business, professional, and community leaders pledged to uphold the
- highest ethical standards and moral standards. Rotarians believe that worldwide fellowship and peace
- can be achieved when people work together to uphold the Rotary motto, service above self.
- Rotary activities exemplify the partnership, respect, and generosity that one would expect from people
- who believe we are responsible to help others. Shane, you've been chosen for membership in the Bloomington
- Club because your fellow members believe that you to be a leader in our community and because you possess
- the qualities to champion the messages and principles of Rotary. You are a representative.
- of our vocation, talent, with our club and community, of your vocation, talent, with our club and community.
- You have become an ambassador of Bloomington Rotary, carrying the ideals of service to whom all are
- within your sphere of influence. Our community will know and judge Rotary by your character and service.
- We will also look to you for inspiration as we strive to become better Rotarians.
- We will now pin you with a distinguishing badge of a Rotarian, your rotary pin. We ask that you wear
- this rotary pin with pride in many endeavors and as a symbol of our recognition of your contribution
- towards a better world through your rotary membership. Fellow Rotarians, please rise if you're able
- and welcome our newest member.
- Welcome. That's always one of my favorite parts of the sort of a club meeting. So welcome aboard, Shane.
- And with that, Jim Sims, if you'd like to introduce our guest.
- Hello, everyone. Hello, everyone. All right. Before I introduce our speaker, is Jim Shea in the house?
- No. Jim is one of my really good golfing buddies. And I think most people know how much I really enjoy
- a good round of golf. And our speaker today, I've had the pleasure of playing with him.
- And he's one of the few, well, not the few, he's one of the other people that I could say that is a
- better person than he is a golfer. But before he left, he's a darn good golfer. So I just wanted to
- make that. I also want to thank Alon Barker for sharing a quote with us, most of us on the board and
- those sorts of things. And it's from Winston Churchill. And I think it's apropos for today's, for our
- speaker today.
- And that quote is, we make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give. So thank you, Alon.
- And that was from Sir Winston Churchill, the quote. And I just thought it was very appropriate today.
- Now, our speaker today, Denzel Ross. He is the president of IU Health South Region, and he became a
- member of IU Health in February of 2024. In this role,
- He leads strategic and operational avenues for IU Health Bloomington, IU Health Bedford Hospital, IU
- Health Morgan, IU Health Paoli Hospital, and over 60 ambulatory clinics and joint ventures encompassing
- more than 5,000 team members in seven counties. Before joining IU Health, Ross served as a chief executive
- officer for Northwest Medical Center Haughton,
- a 145 bed facility he helped open during the COVID-19 pandemic. His previous leadership roles have included
- Chief Operating Officer and Lead Administrator for Lovelace Medical Center, did I get that right? Lovelace
- Medical Center and Heart Hospital in New Mexico and Chief Operating Officer and Ethics and Compliance
- Officer at Metropolitan Methodist in San Antonio, Texas.
- Ross is a board certified and a fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives, as well as
- a member and co-founder of the Kansas City Regional Chapter of the National Association of Health Service
- Executives. At Park University, Ross earned his master's in business administration degree with an emphasis
- in healthcare and health services management. He was cum laude when he graduated with his bachelor of
- science in
- with his Bachelor of Science in Computer Science. I'm sorry, those two sciences together. With an emphasis
- in system analysis. He is also or was also on the American's Essential Hospitals Fellow, formerly NAPH.
- Without further ado, may I introduce my friend, President Denzel Ross.
- I'll check. Can you all hear me okay? All right, perfect. Well, thank you so much for those kind words.
- I'll tell you that Jim has quickly become a sound counsel for me. I often pick up the phone and say,
- hey, what's going on here? Tell me what you think. Tell me who I should be talking to. And also someone that
- I feel comfortable taking some golf tips from. So I enjoy your time, enjoy your counsel. And Tracy,
- thank you so much for having me. Thank you for your leadership here. Greatly appreciated. Can those
- online maybe give a thumbs up? We're okay there? Okay, awesome, great. So my name is Denzel Ross. I
- serve as the president here for the South region, as you have heard. Sort of my thoughts here today.
- is to go through this presentation, talk a little bit about who we are as IU Health, what we do, the
- spaces we cover. I also want to touch base on the landscape of healthcare that we see here, not only
- in Indiana, but nationally, some of the things that we're combating, and then end with some positive
- notes of what we're doing here in the region.
- Before I go on to that, I've had a few of you in the room that I've had the honor of meeting and talking
- to here just today who shared about your journey and interaction with our facilities and our providers
- and our staff here most recently. I know, Jim, you just shared. And thank you all for sharing.
- because it's the feedback like that that I always feel so honored to hear and represent this badge wherever
- I go. But we don't always get it right, but we strive to every time, every patient, every time, ma'am.
- So your feedback and your thoughts about how that interaction went is always well appreciated. So I'm
- glad all is well with those of you who shared. Moving forward,
- This is a snapshot, three pillars here essentially of what we talk about at IU Health internally all
- the time. So our vision, who are we and what are we destined? There in red, we say it all the time,
- we are here to make Indiana one of the nation's healthiest states. And how do we do that? We do that
- by our values in the middle. It's excellence, purpose, team, and compassion.
- And through those four things, we talk about it all the time. This is posted all throughout the organization.
- And again, your stories that you shared, I hope that you were able to see and feel this throughout the
- organization. And then the promise that we make to the communities that we serve is we want to have
- the best care designed with you in mind. So this is not just us as an organization dictating how things go.
- But we want to constantly hear that feedback. We don't want to be a know-it-all organization. We want
- to be a learn-it-all organization. So we're constantly gathering that feedback. So when we think about
- who we are and the path that we're going, we have identified it as these three buckets. Excellent care,
- exceptional people, and expanding impact.
- So those are the three core principles by which we decide and operate throughout our organization. This
- slide I'm not gonna talk a lot about, but just wanted to give you a point out that when we think about
- IU Health as a statewide entity, because we are, we have 15 hospitals across Indiana. If you give us
- two years, that number will then be 17.
- Since we are adding, you probably heard of a big project in downtown Indianapolis. We have a new facility
- that is going up in Fort Wayne and another facility that's happening in West Lafayette. So constantly
- growing because we believe that we play a big part in making Indiana that healthier state. I also try
- to incorporate into my presentation some
- through some conversations and things that I hear in the community of questions that sometimes come
- up. And one of those questions is, we are not ran out of New York from a private equity firm. We are
- a nonprofit organization
- We have a local board of directors who help support and have oversight of the organization as a whole.
- And so when decisions are made, they are coming from a local body who are part of the community, who
- support the community, want to see the community grow. And so we are very much local to the
- state. Particularly for the South region and my
- our oversight. You'll see here, we have an 11 county focus, but we do have physical assets in seven
- counties. And whether that be through all four hospitals as listed previously, or 61, now 62 sites of
- care, urgent cares across Monroe County and other present assets, we have a growing number
- That number of 470,000 residents that we are serving is now very much closer and exceeding half a million
- Hoosiers here in the South region.
- So when we always talk about how we give back to the community, this is a moving number. But as of so
- far for 2025, because it's a little bit of a lag, we have recorded about $60 million worth of community
- support. To the right side of that, it lists all the various areas that we give back to the community,
- where in many cases, the cost
- of care does not always match what we're reimbursed. And we have said, even though that is the case,
- we will continue to serve the communities because that's who we are. That's who we said we'll be. And
- at the end of the day, it's the reason why we're here. So we're very proud of this number. This number
- is a little bit down from the previous year because of a shift in how we report that number. Previously
- in 2024, this number was closer to $80 million worth.
- of benefit back to the communities that we're so very proud about that. Now, I know this is a little
- bit of an eyesore, but I know this is what healthcare feels like. Would you agree? Yeah, sometimes,
- right? It's all these moving parts, some that you don't even know or want to know and understand, some
- that are painstakingly trying to map where it goes. This is a problem.
- And I say we because I'm part of the system, but we here in healthcare, this is what we're trying to
- solve. We want to have as linear a path as we possibly can for the people seeking care. Because trust
- me, when you are not feeling your best, because that's what we deal with, right? I guarantee that none
- of you have ever said, hey, it's beautiful outside, I got the day off, let's go hang out at Bloomington Hospital.
- Probably not. We see people at their worst. And when you're at the worst, you don't want to feel like
- just another ball on this map. And so this is what we're working to solve, is how we can eliminate this
- field and get to a linear outcome. Well, we have all challenges that are set forth before us, or at
- least trends that we're monitoring through how we get there. We've got workforce shortages.
- that are impacted. Five years ago, we spent a lot of time focusing on COVID, of how we get out of COVID.
- And then once we were out of COVID, we had the opportunity to look back and say, well, how has our world
- changed? How has it changed for us and how we provide care and how we reach the people who need care?
- You see there projected growth in nurse demand from 2020
- to 2030, there's a 16.3% increase for ambulatory services. There's about a 7.5% increase in inpatient
- hospitals needing nurses. We see residential care facilities about a 5% increase in need. To the bottom
- left, you see the inadequate amount of surgeons, the cost of going to medical school. People are thinking
- about other paths.
- All of those lines that you see trending down, that's vascular surgery, thoracic surgery, plastic surgeons,
- the only one that's trending up, it's general surgery. All the others are going down. We have a risk
- of future OB providers. You may have heard that earlier this year, they have two facilities that are
- in our general region that have closed OB services.
- That's Greene County and Johnson Memorial Hospital. They no longer deliver babies. And that is a growing
- trend across the country. I think to date, I understand that the number last time that I heard it was
- about 37 hospitals have either closed birthing units or closed birthing hospitals. So it's a growing
- trend. The change in demand.
- You'll see here particularly where you see where it says South Central, you see a decline in population.
- So minimal growth across the state of Indiana. But while we see a decline in population, we also see
- an increased need for services. So how are we matching that? Particularly to Monroe County, you see
- that top line.
- is the age 0 to 24. You see that slowly trending down. We see a lot of people who come particularly
- to IU or come to Indiana for different needs, and they leave. How are we combating that? You see the
- red line there is 65 and older. We see that increasing. So a lot of the conversations
- my team and I are having today, are how are we fitting the need for that aging population? Here you
- see it in a different view. From 2020 to 2025, that purple line there has grown from 19.8% to 20.7%.
- And that's older adults from 45 to 64. And then 65 and above is that green top line. That's going from 14.1%
- in 2020
- to 20.5% in 2025. So as we continue to think about how we continue to serve, there's a lot of things
- happening that you all need to be very mindful of. We talk about Medicaid cuts across the country. How
- does that affect services, enrollment, reimbursement rates,
- The 340B overall, 340B is a program by which we work directly with the medication and manufacturers
- to provide medications to patients who do not have the ability to pay for them. They're talking about
- reducing that program. Sites of services, where can we deliver care? Insurance companies are overwhelmingly
- continuing to dictate where that happens. The cost of healthcare.
- One of the things you probably heard as well, I have heard it, and so I'll talk about it. IU Health
- as an organization said five years ago that we are not going to increase the cost of care for Hoosiers.
- And for the last five years, we have kept our costs stagnant. Guess what has not been stagnant? All
- the other costs involved, workforce, supplies, labor,
- have all continued to increase since COVID, but we said we are going to make a sacrifice for the sake
- of Hoosiers to keep all costs stagnant. So we have not increased in the last five years. Charity care,
- medical debt, one of the things that we are now pressed to do that if we don't lower our costs below
- a certain threshold, we stand a chance of losing our nonprofit status.
- that 60 million that I talked about community benefit, we are able to do that because of our nonprofit
- status. That possibly goes away if this was enacted. So you'll see here, Indiana Medicaid, through a
- lot of communication, a lot of conversation with our local teams, spending days and nights
- at downtown Indianapolis with the local legislature. Through FSA, we were able to support the return
- of about $310 million to the state general fund. That would allow us to continue to work for Medicaid
- and Medicare patients. And just so that you are aware, when you think about the population in Bloomington,
- anyone want to take a guess of that half a million
- Hoosiers that we see and provide care for, what percent of that population is Medicaid and Medicare?
- Anyone want to go on a guess? 40, 50, 60%. It's closer to about 63%. 63% of Hoosiers in the South region
- on Medicaid and Medicare. So that is a big part of how we operate. So you could imagine
- It worries me the way Medicaid and Medicare is being talked about today in terms of reducing that support.
- We continue to reinforce the importance of protecting across all regions the support for transitions,
- especially given that Medicare role in serving many of that population. So we continue to be a front
- runner there.
- This is sort of all priorities as it comes to legislative impact. So we wanna be the leader in low in
- healthcare costs, which we continue to do. The most recent RAND 2.0 report shows that over the course
- of the last four to five years, we have drastically, or IU Health specifically, has been a key partner
- in drastically reducing the costs
- down from national trends. And we're very proud of that. Indiana's most pressing health care needs,
- we continue to be the leader in that field. Over the course of the last eight to 10 months, IU Health
- in Bloomington has started four cardiovascular medical procedures that weren't done in Bloomington,
- one of which is first in the state, robotic aortic valve
- replacement. These are services that, number one, if you needed it, you had to go to Indianapolis. And
- for some others, if you needed it, you had to go out of state. We are now doing them here in Bloomington,
- and we're very proud of that. We're advancing health care through innovation, as I talk about robotic
- surgeries, robotic care, and we're looking at how do we get more involved in research, clinical trials,
- that we could bring more services to Bloomington.
- And then the health, economic, and workforce leadership, we are taking a really big step towards that.
- I have another slide that I'll touch base on that here very quickly. So I talk about IU health prices
- and the price benchmark set by the Indiana General Assembly. There towards the left, the blue bar, you'll see 247.
- That's the number of percentage points in terms of increase to the state benchmark of growth. The middle
- is IU Holt in 2023 and on the right IU Holt in 2024. So you see we have constantly been driving the
- cost of healthcare down over the last couple of years. So how are we doing from a healthcare facility?
- How are we making decisions to ensure that we continue to be here and care for our patients? You'll
- see Bloomington BLM, that is our facility here in town. SR is the South region, so we do look at it
- separately. But if you look at just Bloomington, over the course of 2025, the aspect of metric that
- we track for our success has been up. Emergency departments, number of ambulance transports,
- The number of Hoosiers born, right? I just talked about how many OB units are closing across the country
- and particularly in the South region. We are seeing the effects of that. Unique patients, those are
- patients who have not interacted with our system in two years. And we are able to do that because we
- have drastically increased the number of doctors and nurse practitioners here in town.
- to some degree driving access points from about 65 days. It will take you from when you need to see
- a doctor to when you would get in closer to 30. And we're still working because we want to get that
- closer to 14 days where appropriate. Surgical and end-all cases up over time and then admissions.
- So we are, I believe, doing all the right things to improve access, increase access for Hoosiers who
- are looking for care. Some of the things that we're proud about.
- U.S. News and World Report have identified us for some key opportunities or key recognitions.
- Number one, infant and maternal health. We are top of the line in how we provide care for our moms and
- babies. High-performing and heart attack care from the American Heart Association and stroke care, stroke
- honor roll elite status. We started our first residency programs. I'll talk a little bit about that
- and what that means.
- First robotic heart surgery ever done in Bloomington was done October of last year, and we continue
- to expand and do those. We had a drastic increase in this specific surgical procedure. It's a watchman
- device. We hit all 500 implantation here in Bloomington, something again we're very proud about. Magnet
- recognition, that is a nursing standard. 10% of hospitals across the country have it.
- we have it here in Bloomington. So when you are receiving care from our doctors and our nurses, you
- are receiving care from some of the top professionals in the country. So I will skip this here. And
- so some patient highlights. Again, we continue to grow. Over 350 visits since that first half of the
- year, we mentioned seeing about the growth of about half a million of Hoosiers interact with IU Health.
- across the region. Significant impact there in 61 adult primary care providers who have been joined
- our system within the last year. Now we offer same day and next day appointments in almost half of all
- clinic spaces. Two urgent cares that access points that you have available to you to use. One of the
- documents that you have on your table is how
- and where to receive care. So I will bring your attention to that as well. OB-GYN care. We have 31 total
- OB-GYNs providers here in Bloomington. And so we continue to meet the need of moms and babies here in
- Bloomington. So I wanted to, as I get towards the end, I wanted to touch base here on some of the really
- key things, the fun things that we get to do
- in how we create access. On the left side, you see two pictures. The first one, we were able to partner
- with a name who many of you may be well in the know of, Stephen Conny Ferguson, in alignment with Ivy
- Tech, with a supporting gift from IU Health to the tune of $10 million.
- We are now working with Ivy Tech to expand their nursing program. So they will then go from a nursing
- class of about 20 students at any given time in the next three years to 60. So when we think about the
- workforce shortage from a nurse perspective, we said we are not going to sit back and wait for it to
- take care of itself or come around. We are going to actively do something about it. So we will continually see
- a growth over the next two years, particularly when those students start graduating, and they are insured
- a two-year job at IU Health anywhere within the South region. So in partnership with Ivy Tech, they
- are kicking off the application process has gone live already. They are starting that new cohort starting
- here within, I believe, the next coming weeks.
- And so we're very proud about that, very honored to partner with the Ferguson's and their support with
- a matching gift from IU Health. Then the second picture shows our team of onboarding surgeons and physicians,
- because as of July 1, we started two new residency programs at Bloomington, never had it before. And
- what that means, research tells us that physicians are more likely
- to stay and practice where they train. So we said, let's train them. We have eight emergency medicine
- physicians who are in training right now, and six internal medicine physicians in training as of July
- 1. And we're hopeful that as they go through their three-year residency program, that when they train
- here, they are more likely to stay here.
- with the physician shortage that we see across the country. We said we're not going to wait for it to
- resolve itself. We're doing something about it to grow our own pipeline. Then increase in access to
- specialty care. Some of the things that I talked about. In 2026, we did the first mitral clip and the
- first robotic aortic repair in the state. That's a cardiovascular program that has been in the works
- for the last two years. And now we are so excited to bring that care here to Bloomington and to be able
- to do it at a high level. Because of that, our cardiovascular program has increased over by 25% year
- over year. What that means is if you are in need of cardiovascular care, you are in the right place.
- We are now focusing on oncology services to be able to grow that the same way.
- and also looking at other services that we can support as well. So this is just a picture of the team
- showing one of our procedures that we did. It was the first with all vascular team of the transcardia
- artery revascularization done here at Bloomington.
- And then this is a really cool patient story of a Farapulse ablation system that we were trialing. This
- is the first patient that was able to go through this with our electrophysiologist, Dr. Strobel, to
- implant this saving a life of this young man here. And we are able to now trial that across other spaces,
- report out on that and grow that program.
- Robotic surgery, we are looking at how we could utilize this across other places in the region as well.
- It is a mainstay for us. It's also a great recruiting tool. Now that we have surgeons who are coming
- out of training doing robotic surgery, they're asking us in the interview, do you have a robot? And
- now we could say, yeah, we got more than one. We got four. And looking at other areas that we can grow
- that as well to support that care.
- This is a very interesting story. This patient developed lung cancer and initially was treated with
- surgery and radiation and the cancer returned. We now have a specially trained ENT surgeon as nose and
- throat who was able after 12 hours to create a new tongue
- for this patient, reconstructing it from tissue from his arm. You don't hear those things every day.
- We're doing it here in Bloomington. Because of this procedure, this patient was able to get back part
- of their speech and go back living some sort of normal life, which there was no hope that he could do
- so. The future of neurosurgery
- As we talk about an aging population, we're looking at how we can use technology to our best abilities.
- We have some specially trained neurologists as well, more who are going to be trained, how we could
- use that to get you back after surgery quicker.
- and why I continue to talk about technology and robots. If any of you had surgery 10, 15 years ago that
- wasn't done robotically, let's say a general surgery, appendectomy, for example, you would have a four
- to eight day stay in the hospital after surgery. Now with robotics, we're getting you home the next
- day. If any of you have had a total joint replacement, a hip, a knee, not asking you to raise your hands,
- But if you have, you were probably up and walking and moving within four hours of that surgery. Probably
- was going home that very same day. Compared to many years before, you would have a two or three day
- stay in the hospital. That's due to our technology and our robotics. So it's getting you back to life
- quicker than you have.
- Research shows that the longer you stay in the hospital, the higher the percentage chance for an infection.
- So we want to get you out appropriately, and these tools and special training allow for us to do so.
- And then this is a big deal. We have made a very big investment to say, how are we monitoring, monitoring,
- monitoring, documenting, documenting, documenting our patient's care?
- And for many years, we have had Cerner as our electronic medical record. So it's the way that you all
- interact with us. So right now, we have a portal that if you want to send a message to your doctor,
- you go on. You send a message. And you hope somebody sees it. Or you pick up the phone. You dial any
- one of our 37 numbers. You hope that somebody pick up.
- Or if you leave a message, you hope that someone returns your call. All of that has been part of CERN.
- Well, as of May of 2027, all of our facilities will be going live with Epic. It's a significant change.
- We have been on this journey for two years. What this means for you is how you interact with your doctor,
- how you interact with your nurse or nurse practitioner, how you interact with us as a facility changes.
- And we put that back into your hands. You want an appointment? Go on the app.
- and schedule it. You need a refill for your medication, go on the app and you can request that and it's
- somewhat automated. You need to see your doctor. Your doctor could walk away and have a conversation
- directing with you versus does this look familiar? When you're stalking to your doctor because they're
- trying to chart on the other side of the room, now we could pay attention to you and capture what you're
- saying. And when you walk out that room, everything is completed.
- So we are totally leaning into this as a regional academic health center. We want to be able to provide
- you with the best possible care, provide you with great access to our system, and also maintain that
- feedback levels that have been a big part in creating how we change how you interact with our health
- system. I am going to stop there. I could talk forever.
- But a big part of this that I'm looking forward to is the interaction, the questions that you may have,
- whether it be on anything that I mentioned that you would like for me to articulate better or clarify,
- or is there something that I didn't touch on, didn't talk about that continues to be out there that
- you would like for me to answer. So at this time, I'll give the table. Yes. I'm going to go first since I'm
- right by the camera. First of all, thank you for everything you and IU Health does. I've been around
- ERs more than I would like to at my age, both for myself and for friends. I have never had
- a more consistently excellent ER experience than going to the hospital here in Bloomington. Also, my
- primary position through IU Health is fabulous.
- With you talking about the shortage of doctors, are you concerned about how the elimination of the graduate
- plus loan is going to possibly exacerbate that? And then in addition to that, with IU Health being nonprofit
- and not run out of a hedge fund in New York, how does that work with public service loan forgiveness
- for physicians, nurses, pharmacists that come to work
- through IU Health? Yeah, very good question. We have been on the forefront in trying to message how
- best we could attack some of those things. Outside of what you asked, I'll get to it. First of all,
- thank you for your comments and your feedback. So the emergency department is the front door to the
- organization. And so if we can create a good experience there, I think we're in a good place.
- Some of the things that have come up lately has also been the costs for medical school. We continue
- to address that. With loans going away, we have been on the forefront to remind all legislators of the
- importance for us to be able to recruit and create opportunities for those physicians who want to go
- to medical school.
- As many of you all know, we are heavily partnered. We're not the same entity, but we are heavily partnered
- with the university, IU, with the School of Medicine, which is the largest producer of doctors nationally.
- The School of Medicine at IU produces more doctors every year than any other medical school in the country.
- So we have a platform to say, we cannot do this by ourselves.
- We cannot step back because now more than ever, we need more doctors. So what can we do about it? Going
- back to our vision of making Indiana one of the healthiest states, that alignment falls directly with
- our doctors. So we have continued to say that we will figure out ways to fill the gap where we can.
- And sometimes that means providing reimbursement
- or providing loan forgiveness when we can for these medical students. We've championed that the cost
- of medical school is too high, right? Because that is a deterrent from somebody making a decision on
- whether they go to medical school or not. So we've championed that work as well. And we continue to
- have that be front-facing for us because we cannot do it without the doctor. So I think we've been able
- to make good strides simply by the fact that as of July 1,
- we now have 14 new learning positions that we've never been able to have before here in Blument. Yeah.
- Thank you for the presentation, Denzel. And it's exciting to hear the progress that we've made innovatively
- over the last couple of years that you all have made. One of the things that excites me is our relationship
- with IU Health, and I mean the Monroe County NAACP Health Committee. Yes. And one of the initiatives
- that you are championing and brought to us is the Food Nutrition as Medicine Initiative. I think it's
- better that if we could take care of some things here, we may not need the robots later as much. Can
- you speak on that just a bit? Yeah, definitely. So what Jim is referring to is a program that we're
- championing called Food as Medicine. We're not all the way towards the end, but you all know that diet can
- or in some cases solve a lot of medical problems. So we're saying, and this is interesting coming from
- a hospital administrator, we're saying, stay away from the hospital. How can we help keep you healthy
- at home, right? Because we want you to use us when there's the need. And if we could help you stay healthy
- at home, that would be our best wish.
- And so as part of that, we're working actually with the university to start a research project in its
- very early stages of how we can support, track, and monitor how food impacts your care. And can it be
- used as medicine to then keep you off of medication, keep you out of the hospital, reduce the number
- of visits that you have to your doctor,
- reduce the number of visits that you may have to the emergency department. Because one of the things
- that I saw during COVID with a lot of people scared to come to the hospital was that we had a lot of
- patients who ended up at the hospital too late because we weren't solving for things early. Through
- this program, I'm hopeful that we could drive some of the simpler medical conditions
- decrease the prevalence of those in communities that need the help the most, and overall improve the
- health of Hoosiers here in the South region. So I'm hopeful. I am all in. I've told my team we're going
- to lean into this this year. We're hopeful to have a research product that will kick off before the
- end of the year. And then through all of that, supporting Food is Medicine
- with different things like blood pressure checks, making sure that you know your numbers, making sure
- that you have access to these seemingly simple tools that could help you live a better life. So I'm
- hopeful that here in another couple of months, we're able to roll that out, but a lot of that work is
- in progress. Yeah, thank you. Do we have any questions online? Yes, we do. And thank you, Denzel, for
- speaking with our
- club today. Leslie Conceco asks, as rural hospitals are closing, how has that impacted the traffic at
- the Bloomington Hospital? Yeah, I think you saw that particularly around why all the amongst other things,
- why we continue to trend up in a number of different ways with all those green arrows.
- We're happy to see that because we think we are best fitted to care for the patients here in the South
- region through our expertise or collaboration or use of technology. But we have seen an impact there.
- When Green County closed, I had a conversation with their CEO said, hey, how can we help? How can we
- support your patients? Because at the very least, I cannot imagine a mom
- who is about to deliver, having to think about getting in a car and traveling an hour to deliver a baby.
- That's scary. And so through some work, we have been able to support them to some degree. The unfortunate
- thing is that we can't do that everywhere. So to some degree, we're going to have to think about how
- we support our community as a region. That is something that we've talked about a lot. We are not just
- Bloomington, we're just not Bedford, we're not Peole, but we're a region.
- And in some cases, it may be better positioned for you as a patient if you show up at Bloomington to
- say, we could get you care, the appropriate high quality care, access to that care faster if you were
- in Bedford, or depending on what you're showing up for, Morgan. And so utilizing ourself as a system
- is our solution to do that. But we have seen an uptick in access.
- And we're a little bit behind the eight ball from a position perspective, like I mentioned, 65 position
- positions that have been placed so far for 2026 with many others come in towards the end of the year.
- We've already have about eight positions signed for 2027 that were constantly growing to meet that need.
- As we see more and more patients come to us with other rural facility, either closing services or closing overall.
- I believe Raj Hadami has a question. Yes, may I step in? Thank you so much for coming and talking to
- us. It's very exciting to see the progress at the Bloomington Hospital. I am glad you share it with
- all of us, but I'm going to take you the different side. As I said, you side stepped it. We have, as
- far as I recall, statistic-wise, between 18 to 22 percent
- of Monroe and Owen County who are uninsured. And as you know, and everyone probably members of the club
- knows this, the Medicaid program in Indiana is as brutal as you could get anywhere in the country. And
- the time I'm referring to, which is about 15 years ago, you are not qualified to be a Medicaid patient
- with maximum $5,500 a year, I repeat, a year. So what happened? Could you give us an update on this
- segment of about 20% of the people who live between us? How is IU Health facing this issue? And if you have
- update the statistic beyond what I said, I love to hear it. And thank you again for sharing with us
- your progress. Yeah. Well, thank you. And I'll try to be quick. So what we're trying to solve for here
- is the eligibility requirements for Medicaid and Medicare. We have been frontline with the IHA, which
- is the Indiana Hospital Association. We have locked arms with them.
- and continue to try to tell our story of why the new eligibility requirements is bad, right? We have
- changes in ages or at least as a conversation, work requirements that are coming
- There are some restrictions around what happens in your home, even if it's not directly affecting you.
- If there's some things happen in the home, the home or people tied to that address lose SNAP benefits.
- All of those things, we are battling, I would say. We are a direct recipient
- of those Medicaid patients, Medicare patients to us, and we wanna be able to create the access. So we're
- taking that front where from a legislative perspective, we are front and center and trying to tell the
- story and why we believe these things will drastically reduce access. On the flip side, we have said,
- you need care, come see us. We'll figure out the details of how we get paid after, because at the end
- of the day, we're here to represent Hoosiers, all Hoosiers,
- and give access to care across the region, across the state. And if you need care, come see us. So we
- do not consider that a barrier to access. We'll continue to see everyone if they need care. Now, part
- of that means, which is a tough decision that we have to make, we have to figure out how we cover those
- services. Now, does that push us to, if I'm being completely honest, now does that push us to increase
- rates in certain areas?
- Yes, we will have to have that discussion when that time comes. But if it's one thing that we have said
- is that we will not restrict access to care based on your ability to pay. So with that, one thing that
- I do wanna touch on very quickly is that as that commitment continues to grow and we see access continues
- to grow, we are in the process right now of adding beds
- Last year, we were able to reshift and add access to 17 beds in the hospital. We just started our designing
- construction process to add an additional 12 that would come online next year, next summer. And so as
- we're looking at the growth and we're looking at the access and growing with the community, we're doing
- so with our
- financial investments there into the facility and always looking at areas of access that we can attack
- as well. Thank you. Thank you all for having me. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you so much, Denzil.
- In honor of your program today, we'll be
- donating $100 to C-Jam for the quarter. I just want to tag out. I know we're at time, but I know everybody's
- very interested in this particular topic. I just want to give a testimony, Raj, to your question and,
- Denzel, your answer. Having worked on the Beacon project, as I think you all are aware, I have seen
- Dr. Kevin Moore is very involved with Beacon. He's on the board now.
- This is indicative. They work closely with Health Net. So there is that communication happening. It's
- improving. Are we 100% where we need to be? Absolutely not. I don't think anyone in the room is going
- to tell you that. But you are seeing that networking happen. And it's got to start somewhere. And it
- has started. So we appreciate that. I know Forrest and Amy certainly appreciate that. Your clients certainly
- appreciate that. We'll get there. We'll get there, God willing, someday. All right.
- Wanted to thank everybody who helped bring today's program together. Winston Schindel, AKA Dad, thank
- you for the greeting. Andrea, thank you for the guest introductions and good job on getting Brianna's
- name right. Jim Simms, thank you for the speaker introduction and suggestion of a speaker, because obviously
- it was very well received and excited. Joy Harder, thank you as always for Zoom host. And Mike Wade,
- thank you for the wonderful reflection integrating the four-way test into everyday life. Judy Schroeder,
- thank you for doing the
- the writing, the hardest, the reporting, the hardest job there is. Hank, thank you for stepping in and
- doing. See, other people besides Mike Shermas can do the camera and microphone. So good job, Hank. Katie
- Cerniak, thank you for taking the photos. And Jill, thank you for our executive assistant and the door,
- using the big door at the back. That was much better. And Tyler, as always, thank you for the audio.
- that you've done. Our next meeting will be in the Franchipani room, so we get to go from cramped to
- spacious. On August 22nd, Emily Pike will be our special guest informing us about New Hope for Families,
- so please join us if you can. And with that, if you could put the four-way test up and stand if you
- are able. Of the things we think, say, or do, first, is it the truth? Second, is it fair to all concerned?
- Third, will it build goodwill and better friendships?
- Fourth, will it be beneficial to all concerned? And fifth, is it fun?