Hospital campus to be smoke-free

The entire Methodist Hospital campus in Arcadia will be smoke-free (or smoker-free) in the near future, an initiative announced Thursday morning (March 15, 2012) by new President/CEO Dan Ausman.

Dan Ausman

Speaking in front of more than 40 attendees at the monthly Arcadia Chamber of Commerce Networking Breakfast in the Sunset Room of the Santa Anita Golf Course, sponsored by Rose Hills Memorial Park & Mortuary, Ausman said as the community health care provider, Methodist needs to lead by example and not have patients see hospital staff smoking. Although it may sound counter-intuitive, Ausman says the hospital wants to encourage a healthy lifestyle and offer suggestions for taking steps to prevent illness so that residents will make fewer trips to the hospital.

He also said Methodist Hospital will be more pro-active in “figuring out” the health of the community in order to serve them better. He said the three primary areas of focus of Methodist are quality of care and services, safety, and patient satisfaction.

After noting a long list of top and mid-level management changes in recent weeks, Ausman said Methodist is facing economic challenges not unlike most independent hospitals in the country. Last year’s opening of the new $300 million tower added to those challenges. (Dozens of emergency room workers and other staff were recently laid off). Referring to former longtime Methodist CEO Dennis Lee, Ausman jokingly said, “Dennis did a great job getting it built and then left it to me to figure out how to pay for it.” He said the tower created a $20 million increase in interest expenses, but that the hospital remains “strong” and “very successful” despite the $300 million new tower.

Rose Hills Memorial Park & Mortuary sponsor banner at check-in table.

Health care, including the co-called “Obama Care,” is also an important issue that Methodist needs to figure out how to navigate for patients as well as its own staff. Ausman said Methodist pays $10 million in health care for the hospital’s own staff of 2,000 employees and their 2,500 dependents. “We can’t afford increases in premiums,” he said. He also said that with “no substantive change coming from D.C.,” the hospital needs to “figure out how to navigate our own future.”

(See many additional photos by clicking here at Chamber Facebook page.)

— By Scott Hettrick