President's Message

Welcome to St. Joseph's Medical Center's website. I have had the privilege of serving as the hospital's president since January of 2007. I am not new to the organization and have served in nursing leadership and administrative positions here for more than 20 years. I consider myself very fortunate to serve in an organization so rich in history and Benedictine tradition. The Benedictine Sisters from the St. Scholastica Monastery in Duluth, Minnesota began this ministry and have been serving the health care needs of the Brainerd Lakes region for 111 years. Our organization's mission is based on their commitment to serve the sick as though they were Christ. Their Core Values of Respect, Stewardship, Hospitality, and Justice form the basis for our culture and decision making.

Having been a part of St. Joseph's for so long I am confident in saying that this is one of the most important times in our organization's history. On January 2nd of 2007 St. Joseph's integrated with Brainerd Medical Center, a 50 physician multi-specialty group practice to form Brainerd Lakes Health. Together we are committed to expanding the scope of services provided to the Brainerd Lakes region and achieving excellence in clinical outcomes, care coordination, patient experience and operational efficiency. We have made significant progress in these areas over the past 18 months and I would like to share some of the initiatives that are underway.

More than 20 new physicians have been recruited to the Brainerd medical community since January of 2007 and we have a medical staff development plan that includes the addition of 30 to 40 more over the next five years.

Work continues on the development of a comprehensive cardiovascular program to serve the Brainerd Lakes Area. Facility planning for the Heart Center to be developed on our hospital campus is underway with a projected completion late in 2009. The program will include cardiac catheterization and interventional capabilities in addition to heart disease prevention and chronic disease management programs such as congestive heart failure management as well as advanced capabilities in non-invasive cardiac diagnostics.

Our surgery program has also experienced significant growth. Two years ago we launched our Joint Camp program with the surgeons from Northern Orthopedics. This program offers an innovative approach to total joint replacement that has dramatically improved patient experience and recovery time. As a result, the program has grown by more than 28% since it began.

In September of 2008 we launched the daVinci surgical robotics program. This technology brings minimally invasive surgery to a whole new level. Surgeries that could previously only be done using a traditional open surgical approach can now be done with a minimally invasive approach decreasing complications and improving recovery times. This technology is used by our urologists gynecologists, and general surgeons to perform procedures such as prostatectomies, hysterectomies and gastrointestinal surgeries. Our first patient surgeries using the the daVinci technology have been very successful. We are fortunate to have surgical robotic capabilities in a rural community like ours. Until now it has only been offered in larger metropolitan areas. We thank the St. Joesph's Foundation for making acquisition of the system possible.

We are also expanding our cancer care program. Through an affilliation with our sister organization, St. Mary's/Duluth Clinic patients will have access to clinical treatment protocols they currently would not have without leaving the community for care. We have launched a cancer navigator program which utilizes a clinical nurse specialist to work with cancer patients from the point of diagnosis to coordinate services and provide education and support throughout the treatment process. We have added new imaging capabilities with breast specific gamma imaging to assist in the diagnosis of breast cancer and are pursuing accreditation as a community cancer care program. Our cancer care program will be surveyed by the Commission on Cancer Accreditation in December of this year to determine whether we meet the very stringent standards necessary to achieve this prestigious accreditation.

Other examples of clinical excellence achieved over this past year include accreditation of our bariatric surgery program by the American College of Surgeons and designation as a Level III trauma center by the Minnesota Department of Health.

Improving patient experience is also a high priority for us and we measure this through patient satisfaction surveys. We compare our results with hospitals across the country and are proud to say that we consistently achieve satisfaction levels that exceed 90% of the hundreds of hospitals in our comparison group. There are always opportunities to do even more to improve patient experience and we have launched several new improvements in such areas as patient access to appointments, scheduling and post-discharge care.

These are just a few examples of the many new and exciting things we are doing to deliver on our promise of expanding the scope of services offered to the community and achieving clinical, service and operational excellence in all that we do. Thank you for checking out our website. I hope you'll check back at intervals to watch us grow.

Jani Wiebolt, President