FORT WORTH -- The JPS Health Network should reorganize services at its main campus and pursue the closure of Main Street where it splits the hospital in an effort to make operations more efficient and to improve patient health, according to a master facility plan.
Operational improvements and facility renovations would prevent problems with long walking distances and cut down on duplication of services, concluded the plan presented to the JPS Board of Managers on Thursday.The plan envisions a main campus that serves as "an acute healthcare hub for all of Tarrant County" while community clinics -- some possibly consolidated -- provide non-acute primary and specialty care."To say the least, you have productivity challenges," said Tom Dwyer of BOKA Powell, the architecture, planning and interior design firm that performed the study. "You have grown and grown and grown, and I don't know that anyone was watching."Results of the year-long study, which cost JPS just under $1.2 million, were presented during a joint meeting of the board of managers and hospital medical executives.The hospital district hired the firm to analyze the district's facilities, including the hospital, Level 1 trauma center and more then 50 health centers, school-based programs and specialty clinics.The plan is intended to help the hospital district meet the needs of the rapidly growing North Texas community and address changes in healthcare in coming decades. It should not be considered "a blueprint for every new building," said Robert Earley, JPS Health Network CEO."This is not a facility plan in the traditional sense," Earley said. "This really looks at a strategic approach as to where JPS should be headed."The study found that sprawling facilities have made JPS less efficient. Medical and surgical acute services are spread around the main campus, which is separated by Main Street and connected by an enclosed bridge.A cardiac patient who enters the hospital will travel almost a half-mile on a trek from an evaluation room to the catheter lab to surgery to intensive care and, finally, to the patient tower.Some studies show that every time a hospital moves a patient it adds a half-day to the patient's hospital stay, Dwyer said. It also requires staff to transport the patient.Divided by MainMain Street effectively divides the campus into "two hospitals operating side-by-side," he said. If the city were to close Main Street, JPS could connect the two sides of the campus. The hospital could, for example, cluster acute services on one side and specialty clinics on the other, he saidBoard member Steve McCollum, who was recently appointed, called the idea of trying to close Main Street "dramatic.""But it also makes a lot of sense," he added.Earley said the hospital district has not broached the idea with the city.The plan also proposes maximizing the hospital campus' value as an "economic engine" in the south Main Street area with development of "an urban community" around the campus.Phases of the plan also suggested demolishing the old St. Joseph's hospital building, moving clinics that draw high volumes of patients to the ground floor and putting the urgent care and emergency departments closer together. JPS-owned buildings are valued at $356 million.For community clinics, the plan suggested dividing the county into five "homogenous" regions -- west, north, south, northeast and Arlington -- and providing patient- and family-centered care at "regional care hubs" strategically located along public transportation lines.Some clinics that offer similar services within a few miles of each other could be consolidated, Dwyer said.The board of managers did not take action on the plan. Decisions will be made incrementally as the plan is put into action, Earley said.BOKA officials interviewed more than 120 staff members, physicians and service providers during the analysis.Plan's cost unclearThe plan does not come with a fixed price tag, Earley said."The price tag is what we are able to reach with our own efficiencies and with our own benchmarks," he said. "It we are able to put things in place that create greater efficiencies for JPS, this project could start out and be a $1 million project. It may be a $5 million project it or may evolve to a $10 million project."JPS faces numerous challenges, including the county's steady growth, lower reimbursements for care, increases in uncompensated care, federal political gridlock, state reductions in Medicaid and uncertainty regarding healthcare reform, hospital officials said.Alex Branch, 817-390-7689Have more to add? News tip? Tell us
