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?