Mark Slyter is president of Baptist Medical Center and chief operating officer of Baptist Health Systems in Jackson. He graduated from the University of Kansas and resides in Madison. He recently spoke with Northside Sun Staff Writer Anthony Warren about the hospital, its changing role and how it’s been affected by the economy. How are things going at Baptist right now? “As many hospitals across the country, we were hit with the pains of the economy, but we are beginning to see some of the economy recover. The hospital has seen some very good trends in the last six to eight months. We are now starting to move forward on some of the projects and strategies we put on hold.”

What are those projects and strategies? “A lot of our strategies revolve around physician recruitment. We’re looking at our current complement of physicians and are working with groups to support them and recruit more. We do have some capital pieces that we’re in the process of evaluating. I’m not at liberty to tell all the details, but some of the projects are critical to our future. All of this for the public means better access, better facilities and more physicians in the market. For the consumer, this is a positive thing.”

How many employees does Baptist have?

“We have 3,000 employees and 45 fully-integrated physicians, meaning they are really partners. They participate in the management and governance of the hospital. They don’t just provide a service and collect a paycheck. They participate in improving quality across the continuum.”



How has Baptist been affected by the economy? “One of the biggest things we’ve seen is people delaying care because of out-of-pocket costs. We’ve seen that people lose their jobs, unemployment goes up, and health care is tied to employment. Obviously, we’ve seen more people without the means to pay for treatment. When they are sick and have to come to the hospital, many don’t have insurance.”

Is it harder to collect on medical bills right now? “Absolutely it is. More people are unable to pay and they’re unable to find the necessary means to get support. It’s important for people not to put their health in jeopardy, even if they’re not capable of paying the bill. There are services where patients can talk to counselors and see what options are available. Many times, we can work out a payment plan so they don’t have to put their health or family’s health in jeopardy.”

What effect does not paying have on the hospital? “Basically, a hospital is just like any other business. When people don’t pay it delays our cash on hand. We are always looking for ways to facilitate a prompt payment. Like any well-managed business, that’s an important factor to pay attention to. Cash on hand is the way we pay employees and fund our day-to-day operations.”

If people can’t pay, do you pass the price on to someone else?

“In the past, that would probably have been true. But in health care, it doesn’t ring true anymore. There’s no way to pass our loss to a patient. We get a flat-rate payment from the government and private insurance. There’s no way to shift the cost. That’s probably a good thing in the end.”

I want to go back to what you were talking about earlier. I know that Baptist has been approved to install an emergency room in Madison. Why is that needed? “We feel that Madison is a growth market. When the demographics and the law allow us, we’ll build a new hospital there. Right now, under certificate of need laws and the current formula used to determine the need for a hospital, the demographics in Madison don’t allow us to build one there. Despite that, we made a commitment long ago by purchasing 80 acres with the intent to place a hospital there when the law allows it. Until then, we’re positioning medical offices out there. Other offices have already built up around the campus, increasing the medical staff density.”

What services does Baptist provide at the satellite campus? “We provide primary care services, cardiovascular imaging services, and a full-service outpatient imaging department. Hopefully, Madison’s demographics will continue to grow so we can soon talk about moving forward with our master plan for the acreage, which includes building a Healthplex, a hospital and other full-campus services in Madison.”

I’ve noticed that there is a growing number of satellite campuses. What role do those campuses play for hospitals?

“It depends on the size of the community. If it’s a small, slow-growing community, typically the campus will be what it is today in Madison, because it doesn’t have enough people. The satellite campus becomes a primary care location, with physicians’ offices, imaging and other services that can be provided on an outpatient basis. If anything critical comes, patients are sent to the tertiary care facility (downtown). When growth in the particular area changes and we can put a hospital on the campus, then it doesn’t become a feeder, but a center in and of itself.”

You were mentioning capital projects earlier. I do know that Baptist’s certificate of need request was approved to build an emergency facility in Madison. When will the hospital move forward with that?

“We have not developed a specific date for that. We are very interested in doing that, as well as adding some outpatient surgery components that aren’t there today. Those are definitely within a couple years of getting off the ground. Some may be sooner than that, give or take a year.”

You mentioned a Healthplex earlier. Why are hospitals getting more involved in prevenative health and wellness?

“Part of the ongoing mission of the hospital is community health. It works well in the ways of the reform moving forward. The government is looking at hospitals and physicians to take more ownership of the health of a particular population. It makes sense to invest in the wellness piece. Physicians and hospitals will become more responsible for that in the future.”

How does Baptist stay current with the most up-to-date technology and trends? “We have a lot of feelers out there. Our physicians are continually upgrading their knowledge base with education and conferences. By attending those, they bring back some of the latest technology and procedures, and we talk about how we can implement them as physicians and as a hospital in ways that would make sense. We also have leadership teams in areas like imaging and surgery that network with social groups and other hospitals to gain knowledge to keep us at the cutting edge.

“One example of that is in our cardiac arrest center. We had some physicians who were interested in therapeutic hypothermia. We all agreed that it was a great opportunity. They investigated it and put a plan together and implemented it last month. We were the first center in the Southeast doing that.”

What is therapeutic hypothermia? “In laymen’s terms, studies demonstrate that if you can keep a patient cool as they go through cardiac arrest, their outcome improves.”