Build Me Up: Rural Healthcare Innovation with St. Croix Regional Medical Center
The past year of challenges amidst the COVID-19 pandemic has brought the importance of healthcare access to the forefront of the conversation. But those who live in rural communities can face a variety of barriers to receiving proper health care. According to the CDC, rural Americans make up about 15 percent of the U.S. population, and are more likely than their urban counterparts to die from heart disease, cancer, unintentional injury, chronic lower respiratory disease, and stroke.
St. Croix Regional Medical Center (SCRMC), located in St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin, has been an innovative leader in rural healthcare access. Heading into 2020, CEO Dave Dobosenski was leading SCRMC in a new direction, with a new mission, vision, and values. Then came the pandemic.
Within a 3-week window, SCRMC shut down elective care to conserve PPE, developed a drive-through respiratory screening clinic, and created a virtual care visit platform. This rapid innovation didn’t stop their longterm strategic plan, just delayed it slightly. On the latest episode of Build Me Up, Kraus-Anderson Vice President of Strategy & Innovation Tom Emison and SCRMC CEO Dave Dobosenski sit down to discuss rural healthcare access and strategic innovation planning amidst a global pandemic.
Taking SCRMC From Sick Care to Well Care
When Dave Dobosenski and a group of fellow SCRMC leaders worked with Tom Emison to structure a strategic plan, COVID was nowhere on the horizon. The team was envisioning the future of the organization, planning out how they could best serve their rural community that had its own set of challenges. Rural communities face many barriers, such as lack of transportation and lack of broadband access for telehealth, that prevent patients from receiving regular care. This challenge is how SCRMC’s “Sick Care to Well Care” initiative was born. SCRMC’s proactive approach is getting involved in the community to ensure basic needs are met, including food and housing, that can prevent further health challenges down the line. Understanding the broad socio-economic perspective was key to determining SCRMC’s longterm strategic plan, which involved forging key partnerships to ensure community members get the specialty care access they need. But as the COVID-19 pandemic began surging in the U.S. last March, these plans had to temporarily come to a halt.
Forced Innovation Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic
Leaders from across the SCRMC organization had to step up in big ways throughout 2020. The team was the first to establish a same-day respiratory drive-up clinic in the surrounding area – an innovation that drew quite a few people from Minnesota into their local community to receive care. Dave admitted that all the unknowns from the beginning of the pandemic drew a lot of fear. But teams from across the organization stepped up and tapped into the potential of the organization. The forced innovation shed a light on what could be done, rather than what has always been done. As the vaccine rollout brings hope for an end to the pandemic, SCRMC remains focused on creating a future of sustainable, affordable, and high-quality healthcare.
For an in-depth discussion on strategic planning, rural healthcare access, and SCRMC’s innovations, tune in to the latest episode of KA’s Build Me Up podcast. You can subscribe to Build Me Up wherever you listen to podcasts.
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