| St. John Is Tulsa's Saving Grace |
| Healthcare Facility | |
| By Chris Petersen | |
| Wednesday, 18 July 2007 | |
 Tulsa, Okla.-based St. John Medical Center says it upholds the values of its founders with increased capabilities and enhanced facilities. Today, St. John Medical Center is part of the St. John Health System, also based in Tulsa. Medical Center president and CEO David Pynn says the hospital and its related services still uphold the mission of the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother by bringing quality medical care to people in need. He says the sisters are still heavily involved in the hospital in many aspects, from administration to pastoral care, and serve as reminders of the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother's intrinsic values of service, presence, human dignity and wisdom. More than 700 physicians and thousands of medical professionals provide services in every stage of life for patients in eastern Oklahoma, western Kansas and northern Arkansas. Pynn says the hospital's coverage area includes nearly 2 million people. Because of the challenges of servicing such a large population, St. John Medical Center is incorporating new technology and completing a massive expansion and renovation of the hospital's main campus. "We try to provide the best services in the region, and we're doing very well," Pynn says. Building Up Despite financial setbacks that kept the hospital an empty shell for a few years, the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother were able to open St. John in 1926. "The sprawling campus which now encompasses St. John in midtown Tulsa is a far cry from the modest, 50-bed structure [that] opened more than 80 years ago," hospital literature says. The hospital calls its $300 million expansion its "most ambitious construction project in a quarter-century." Started in 1999, the 21st Street Project added three new structures the Siegfried Tower, a nine-story medical building, an 11-story physician office building and a 1,900-space parking garage to the main campus, enhancing the hospital's capacity and capabilities. The hospital's existing buildings received makeovers, as well. "What it's allowed us to do is to remodel [and] bring up to date, if you will, the whole hospital," Pynn says. Improvements include tripling the size of the hospital's emergency room and construction of a new neo-natal unit that Pynn says is one of the most modern in the region. A stroke center will open later this year, which Pynn says will be one of the only certified centers for treatment of stroke victims in the region. Patients now have private rooms throughout the hospital, as well, he adds. Two intensive care units will also be added to the hospital, creating a total of 55 beds in that unit. Existing services also received extra space from the expansion project, Pynn says. St. John was able to consolidate its neurology services under one roof to create the St. John Neuroscience Institute, which includes the St. John Neurosurgical Center and future St. John Stroke Center. "St. John's neurosurgical team is unrivaled in Tulsa and the Southwest in its comprehensive care and multidisciplinary expertise," hospital literature says. The St. John Center for Women's Health, located in Siegfried Tower, opened in February, offering comprehensive women's services in a single, dedicated area of the hospital. The center offers a continuum of care designed to provide for all phases of a woman's life. From welcoming a new baby to preventing and fighting disease with the latest technology and treatment, the center's multidisciplinary approach weaves together St. John's emphasis on education and prevention. "This was a breath of fresh life into the system," Pynn says. St. John is expanding geographically, as well. A facility in Owasso, Okla., was opened within the last few months. Saving Lives and Time St. John is changing more than its facilities. Pynn says the hospital is in the second year of a five-year plan to convert all of its clinical systems and records to electronic formats. He says the change is streamlining the way St. John cares for patients and speeds up processing. "It's a huge undertaking, and it's very painful to go through, but once you complete it, you have a system that is maximizing patient safety and patient care," Pynn says. The process offers rapid, multi-disciplinary access to patient charts and data, which allows physicians and nursing staff to make the quickest decisions possible and offer the highest level of patient care. St. John has also implemented a new rapid-response team (RRT) comprised of ICU staff. The team is designed to respond when "anybody observes something with a patient they feel is out of the ordinary," Pynn says. The new program has, to date, helped more than 300 patients before they reached Code Blue. The RRT program is among the most visible of St. John's commitments to the 5 Million Lives Campaign. Launched in December 2006, the campaign, an expansion of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement's 100,000 Lives Campaign, offers protocols to improve the outcomes of millions of patients between now and December 9, 2008. The program is built around a set of criteria covering a variety of medical conditions low or high blood pressure, high heart rate, bleeding, seizures, chest pain or shortness of breath to determine if a patient's condition may warrants the rapid response team. Team members are alerted by the medical center's overhead call system, who converge at the patient's bedside as quickly as possible. Being Thankful The expansion of the hospital's main campus, as well as the addition of the Owasso, campus bode well for the future of St. John in the Tulsa area, Pynn says. The hospital is eager to continue the tradition of service started by the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother more than 80 years ago, but not, Pynn points out, before being thankful for what it has accomplished so far. "We have to take a deep breath at first and say grace over all we've done already." |
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