February celebrations and service updates
By Scott Peek, Front Range Market and Saint Joseph Hospital President
This week, we celebrate Resident Appreciation Day, and I want to express my gratitude to the 115 medical residents and fellows currently practicing with us for all they bring to healthcare and our patients.
Saint Joseph Hospital is what I call a “privademic” organization. That means we are a private organization with roots as a teaching institution and a steadfast focus to educate and inspire the next generation of doctors. I am thankful to our residents and our GME faculty who keep us on our toes and help ensure we stay on the cutting edge of innovation and clinical excellence through curiosity, questioning and continuous learning.
There is also reason to celebrate improvements in our quality work, specifically related to mortality. As mentioned last month, our quality metrics are tracked through a data system called Vizient that utilizes six domains, including mortality. Under the leadership of Dr. Gabe Lockhart with support from our Quality department we’ve identified process changes, documentation and heightened awareness of earlier palliative care engagement to improve our ranking in our cohort dramatically.
And partnering with Dr. Lockhart, Dr. John Tynes, CMO, and Chris Vittum, Clinical Excellence, have also championed improvement efforts. In July 2024, monthly interdisciplinary mortality meetings began with active engagement from Intensivists, Internal Medicine and Emergency Department providers, Care Management, Nursing, Sepsis Coordinator, Clinical Documentation Integrity (CDI), Palliative and Hospice Care. All cases are reviewed for opportunities to improve in provider documentation, correct patient status, and use of palliative care and hospice referrals with learnings taken back to specific providers. The CDI team also provided education to numerous providers, provider groups and ancillary team members, specifically around the “expected” aspect of the O/E index, so each case can capture the most accurate co-morbidities of the patient.
Since implementing these strategies, the most recent data from July 2024-September 2024 shows Saint Joe’s ranked 39 out of the 210 hospitals. In particular, the overall hospital mortality index decreased from 1.04 to 0.54, with Pulmonary/Critical Care DRGs dropping from 2.14 to 0.58 and Cardiology improving from 1.23 to 0.46. I want to congratulate you, our outstanding Medical Staff, and all our caregivers on this remarkable improvement. Keep up the great work!
Kaiser Permanente also recently provided us an update about shifting the following services away from Saint Joseph Hospital between April and September 2025:
April: Bariatric Surgery, Infectious Disease, Pulmonology and Critical Care, Plastic Surgery, Urology and General Surgery
June: Epilepsy/EMU, Neurology and Vascular
July: Adult Hospital Medicine, Psychiatry, Supportive Care, Gynecology, Maternal Fetal Medicine, Obstetrics, Pediatric Hospital Medicine, Professional Home Health Care
September: GynOnc, Head and Neck, Oncology, Ophthalmology, UroGyn
As we’ve said since the beginning, we will miss the CPMG physicians as they leave and wish them the best. We wish Kaiser Permanente saw our relationship differently and wanted to build it, but they have other plans. But Saint Joseph will stand tall and evolve through this challenge like we have for 150 years. We continue our work to expand our footprint, recruit providers and showcase the great history and reputation of Saint Joseph Hospital during this transition. I value your input, so please reach out any time with your thoughts and questions.
Thank you for your ongoing commitment to our mission and to providing the highest quality care for our patients.
With gratitude,
Scott