When it comes to expanding, whether its medical services, facilities or physician practices, Jamal Hakim, MD, chief operating officer of Orlando Health, admits that this private not-for-profit healthcare organization has been on “a little bit of a tear” in the past two years.

Consider the following: This hospital system invested some $300 million for the Orlando Regional Medical Center’s (ORMC) new North Tower and renovated South Tower. It also acquired Health Central Hospital, Physician Associates, Boston Diagnostics and Pediatric Associates – all since April, 2012.

This investment in structures and new medical practices reflects Orlando Health’s commitment to its mission, which is to provide the best medical services to everyone who lives in Central Florida, regardless of their financial means, Hakim said.

“We want to offer the highest-quality and the lowest-cost services,” he explained. “But to do that, we had to make some fundamental changes in our system, and we started doing that four or five years ago and a lot of that is now panning out. We are now the leader in the value equation for both the customer, who are our patients, as well as the employer - those people actually having to pay for health insurance and services.”

To fulfill its mission, Orlando Health had to find a way to integrate the delivery of healthcare across a continuum, Hakim notes.

This required Orlando Health to bring in existing practices that not only contained some of the best doctors in the area, but also those who already had a proven track record of adhering to a successful “value equation” business model that mirrored Orlando Health’s. This lead to the acquisition of Physician Associates in 2013 and most recently Pediatric Associates.

The company also had to ensure the medical services patients needed were both abundant and convenient, so that has resulted in Orlando Health’s expansion of healthcare programs such as its outpatient oncology services throughout the community at Dr. P. Phillips Hospital, Health Central Hospital and South Seminole Hospital.

To achieve its mission, Orlando Health is providing sufficient space for these many services and locating these offices in a wider delivery area. Consequently, it’s invested in structures to house an expanded emergency room and catheterization lab. In addition to opening the Physician Associates clinic in Lake Nona, Orlando Health is increasing its presence in places outside Orlando, such as Ocoee and Lake Mary.

And last year, Orlando Health came on board as the official healthcare provider and jersey sponsor for the new MLS expansion soccer team Orlando City Soccer. Orlando Health orthopedic surgeons and primary care sports medicine physicians serve as Orlando City’s official medical team proving the organization’s commitment to be a leader in sports medicine.

“Clearly, Orlando Health’s board and its executives have always known that we are the mission-driven health facility in Central Florida,” Hakim said. “We feel that, ultimately, Orlando Health is the best place to turn for healthcare and Central Floridians can count on us.

“Whether it’s from producing top doctors to having the first teaching hospital in Central Florida, the first pediatric hospital in Central Florida, the first trauma hospital in Central Florida and the first women’s hospital in Central Florida – all these align with our mission.”

In taking the steps needed to realize its mission, Orlando Heath has managed to cut waste to cut costs, he added. It has also managed to reduce duplicity in an attempt to give its patients what they need in terms of healthcare.

“At the same time, we’ve driven up our quality outcomes across our system, which shows our dedication to our patients, our community and to the future of healthcare,” Hakim said.

Altogether, these efforts are positioning Orlando Health, which was founded in 1918, to continuing serving as a healthcare leader in Central Florida for decades to come.

“We’ve been here almost a 100 years and we need to make sure we’re still a servant of the community for the next 100 years,” Hakim said. “And that’s what we see ourselves as – servants of the community.”

Photo captions: Renderings of Orlando Regional Medical Center’s new North Tower; Dr. Jamal Hakim, chief operating officer of Orlando Health (on file).

LINKS:

Orlando Health http://www.orlandohealth.com/