Eric Mooss - Bryan Medical  Center

 

Eric told us a little bit about himself.  His father was a physician, along with his great-grandfather, and grandfather and you probably could go further down the line and find more physicians.  Eric himself was wanted to follow their footsteps, but while in college, he didn’t like some of the things he would have to do, so he went into the Administration in health areas.  He grew up in Omaha, NE and got his undergraduate degree from Creighton University.  His father worked at Creighton all his years before retiring a few years back.

 

Bryan actually expands its services throughout the state of Nebraska.  The main hospital was established in 1926 and the land was given by William Jennings Bryan.  The original name was Bryan Memorial. In the same year the city created its own hospital, Lincoln General.  The Lincoln Rotary Club actually had a hand in helping with creating Lincoln General.  In the 1970’s Bryan purchased Lincoln General and the name became Bryan LGH (east campus and west campus).  The main hospital is Bryan Medical which generates about 75% of the revenue which about 1.3 billion dollars.  There is about 5500 employees.  Bryan Medical includes hospitals in Crete, Central City (Merrick Medical), and recently Kearney Regional and Grand Island Regional joined the Bryan family.

 

Many of the physicians that are affiliated with Bryan which is about 85% are in private practice.  In Omaha 80% of them are actual employees of the hospital they are affiliated.  Under Bryan, you have Bryan Heart and many of these physician’s travel around the state taking care of patients who need that extra health care.  About every three patients come from outside.

 

Bryan Health’s mission is to advance the health of individuals in or region though collaboration with physicians and communities.  There vision is to “Elevate quality of life through better health.”  Bryan Health as some core values which are: 1) Care Like Crazy, 2) Enjoy the Journey, 3) Know show the Way, 4) Live it, Own it, 5) Motivate, Appreciate, 6) One Team, One Purpose, and 7) Spread a Smile, Go the Extra Mile.

 

There are four areas such as Workforce, Capacity Management, Surgical Volumes and Primary Care Access.  Eric touched on two of these areas which were Workforce and Primary Care Access.  Bryan is working to retain their current employees and recruit new people into their workforce.  With all their campuses, Bryan has 5500 employees and have 360 positions open to fill.  Bryan’s turnover is low which is 16% compared to 20% at other medical facilities around the country.  They has been no services at Bryan dropped because of the lower workforce nor any other services.  They try to recruit from Bryan Health Sciences for nurses and other type of health individuals.  Bryan’s Health Science school offers other types of health programs that they can also tap into.

 

There has been a rise in patients and many are coming from around the state and Lincoln which puts a strain on beds.  There are patients that are ready to leave the hospital, but need extended care and it has been hard to place those patients into a facility so that they can get that extended care.  The other area, Eric, talked about was Primary Care Access.  Many doctors today are not taking new patients.  As our population grows, and physicians retire, and don’t get replaced, this can cause problems.  Many of the patients that don’t have a physician and they need care, they go to ER, which causes a bed shortage too.  This is a challenge that faces many hospitals, even Bryan Medical.

 

Eric said that the new April Sampson Cancer Center will be finished at the end of the year and not open up until the spring of 2024.