OSF Hoping for Great Success with Jump Program

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Patricia Luker, CEO and President of OSF Holy Family, spoke at the V-F-W last Wednesday before the mini-ag roundtable. Luker explained that OSF Healthcare is very community-oriented and works in the spirit of Christ.

“We are a 23-bed critical access hospital, and that is actually a federal designation. That federal designation comes to the nation’s smallest and rural hospitals. It does provide us enhanced reimbursement for Medicare patients. Other than that, Holy Family looks like any other hospital,” Luker explained.

Luker informed the public that the local physicians at OSF Holy Family are able to utilize the resources of other OSF Healthcare facilities when needed and that Holy Family provided $1.8 million in charity care in 2017, with another $90,000 in community outreach.

“At Holy Family, even though we’re small, we are nationally recognized for our quality and our outcomes, and I think sometimes the community doesn’t understand what great quality and outcomes that you can get over here at Holy Family,” Luker said.

Luker also reminded the audience that a Women’s Health Event will be taking place on February 24th. An orthopedic surgeon is also joining the Holy Family team in the very near future.

The OSF Innovation Center is ranked in the top ten of the nation. Luker turned it over to Dr. John Vozenilek, Vice-President and Chief Medical Officer of Jump Simulation. Vozenilek presented over how OSF Innovation has invested and what the investments have done for rural communities.

Vozenilek also spoke to the audience about being an inspiration to the children, as he believes that is how success can be assured in the future.

“Being an inspiration to our children is probably the key for success in the future. If we’re talking about healthcare if we’re talking about our own well-being, the well-being of our families, this is the important thing,” Vozenilek said.

Vozenilek stated that children of the committee have visited Jump Simulation to show them what it could be like to work in the medical field. Vozenilek also stated that a STEM program had been started at Jump Simulation to engage students at multiple levels, from a few hours at a time to summer camps. The program is sponsored by philanthropy, scholarships and small registration fees.

“We have done a remarkable job, in less than a year, to fill more than 90 percent of the available seats to allow children to come in from their community, to provide scholarships to children that don’t have the means and their parents that do not have the means to allow for outreach into these communities and to transport children into Jump to really experience what is truly world-class, truly world-class medical education, like no one has seen before,” Vozenilek remarked.

Vozenilek stated that an anonymous donor had donated the money to allow seven students to travel to Jump Simulation and utilize the services there.

“I think we’re making a tremendous amount of impact. And we’ve been able to do this because of the great gifts that have been given to us through philanthropy,” Vozenilek said.

He informed the audience that community outreach was very important to spread the word to help children become interested and involved with the program, if they so choose.

Vozenilek said that engineers go into the OSF Hospitals to give students that may be in the hospital for days at a time, or longer, something to do to learn about engineering. The Bedside Enrichment Program is the first of its kind.

Vozenilek said that while the pay-off for this investment will not be available immediately, in five to ten years it will be apparent once the students return to the community with their new knowledge and skills.

written by Alex Foltz

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