Owensboro Health President and CEO Mark Marsh said Tuesday that there are conversations to potentially expand the system’s reach in southern Indiana.
The system currently serves Spencer and Perry counties in southern Indiana. However, Marsh noted that an expansion could be possible if it is done “for the right reasons and makes sense” for the company.
“We’ll expand throughout the parameters and when it makes sense when we will be prudent,” Marsh said. “So we’re not going to just go build buildings or put things up on billboards, but I can tell you this — there’s a plan and conversations are occurring.”
Across their 18-county system, Marsh noted that roughly 560,000 people live in the counties OH serves. While they have primary service areas in Daviess, Muhlenberg and Grayson counties, Marsh said OH has served thousands patients from other areas.
The company reports 18,119 inpatient admissions; 51,887 urgent care visits; 76,087 emergency department visits; and 27,113 COVID-19 tests given — all while having just short of 5,500 team members.
While the last year has been riddled with coronavirus-related burnout, Marsh said the organization has brought in 25 new doctors over the last year. With the new staff, they plan to focus heavily on resilience in the coming year.
Marsh said that stats show that 25% of nurses currently employed are expected to leave the health care profession in the next 6 months.
“They’re expecting a million nurses to leave in the next few years,” Marsh said. “There’s a lot of things we’re doing that we’re working on … we’ve got to find ways to create an environment where people see the rewards of healthcare.”
While the hospital system is working to find better ways to treat burnout, Marsh reported they were seeing $20 million in community benefits. That includes $2.4 million in charity care and over $14 million subsidized care to medicare patients.
