Memphis' Regional Medical Center moves to become more competitive, change patients' perceptions
By Toby Sells
Sunday, July 24, 2011
It's no secret that the Regional Medical Center at Memphis is making moves to bring more and better-paying patients through the door.
But the secret of that door's location has made navigating The Med's campus part trial by fire, part speakeasy and not good for business.
Hollywood got it right in 1997's "The Rainmaker." Matt Damon and Danny DeVito ride the plexiglass-tubed escalator up from Jefferson to a second-floor visitor's desk by the cafeteria. But they surely had some help finding their way.
No clear sign now points visitors to a friendly face where they can check in or find out where they can find the patient they're looking for.
But no more. Workers are now building a "front door" under the Jefferson Avenue skywalk that will take the guesswork out of navigating The Med's campus. When it's completed in September, visitors will walk into a large lobby to a staffed visitor's desk where they'll check in and find their way, all conveniently located by an elevator bank.
Med board chairman Phil Shannon said finding the front door now is "confusion" but the new entrance and many other projects around the campus will help with the hospital's perception problem.
"A lot of people will say that perception doesn't matter. That's foolish, of course it matters," Shannon said. "The (new front door) will be an efficiency enhancement but it will also be a perception enhancement."
The hospital's medical staff does second-to-none work in trauma, burn, high-risk obstetrics and other specialties. But it does so in a facility that wasn't updated in the 14 years before 2010. The hospital is a patchwork of 1.2 million square feet cobbled together in six buildings built between 1947 and 1994.
"We can take you to places in this hospital right now and let you go but you better have a sandwich in your pocket," Shannon said.
So, while the medical staff may shine, the grubby windows make it hard for the average person to see.
But The Med's management is now actively working on a plan to fix that.
A new hospital
The Med board now has directed management to put aside millions for a new hospital.
The once-in-the-red organization has done this by plugging a big hole in its boat. The $30 million the hospital now gets in matching funds from the state and federal government pays for the treatment received by a big chunk of The Med's patients who can't pay for it. So, the hospital is able to put the money it makes aside for a new building.
What the new hospital will look like and where it will be located is not known. It's also not known when the project will get started.
FTI Cambio, the consulting firm that ran The Med for 18 months from 2008 to 2010, left behind a five-year plan for the hospital that calls for the construction of a $318 million, eight-story hospital bed tower. It would house 310 beds on 420,000 square feet. But, of course, they have gone and the plan remains a suggestion.
What is known is that hospital officials are actively working on this project.
"Come to enough of our board meetings and eventually you will catch a presentation about a new campus, eventually management will bring a recommendation to the board," said hospital president and CEO Reginald Coopwood. "The way I see it, if they approved (a new building) today, it's going to be five years by the time we're having a ribbon cutting."
In the meantime
While they prep that project for takeoff, hospital officials know they need to keep the current facility in the air.
"The dilemma is not to throw good money after bad," said Med Foundation chairman Hamilton Smythe IV. "We have had to invest in our trauma unit knowing we want to be somewhere else. We can't let (standards) be compromised."
Construction crews are now putting the final touches on a complete renovation of the hospital's emergency department. The project will bring more order, security, work flow and privacy to one of the hospital's busiest departments.
Last July, the hospital converted 112 semi-private patient rooms to nicer, completely private rooms.
In December, the hospital partnered with Campbell Clinic to create a 14-room orthopedic suite with patient room renovations that was hoped to bring elective procedures and the extra money they bring to the hospital. The strategy is working, according to Edward A. Perez, a Campbell Clinic orthopedic surgeon and director of orthopedic surgery at The Med.
"In the past, patients were reluctant to go to The Med but it wasn't a quality issue, it was perception," said Perez. "That is gradually fading and it's becoming increasingly easier for patients to say yes, I would like to go to The Med for care." | 
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