Page 2 Profiles Healthcare roundup Subhead: Business Today invited local hospital administrators to weigh in on the top healthcare issues facing their communities.

Steve Bjelich, president and CEO of Saint Francis Medical Center

Steven Bjelich brings his coast-to-coast experience in health care to Cape Girardeau's Saint Francis Medical Center, where he has served as president and CEO since 1999. He received his B.S. in business administration from Indiana University and his master's in health administration from the Indiana University School of Medicine, then worked in hospital administration positions in Delaware, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, California, and now Missouri.

Bjelich first became interested in health care in 1970, when his father underwent open heart surgery. Bjelich was deciding between careers in medicine and business, and his father's cardiac surgeon suggested he consider hosptial administration. It's stuck with him ever since.

Currently, Bjelich is most concerned about the rise in cancer and heart disease in the United States, noting that Missouri is no exception to this increase. To cope with these changes and accommodate the fastest growing area of the hospital, Saint Francis is building a new Heart Hospital and Cancer Institute.

"It was designed from the ground up by physicians, staff and heart and cancer patients to add efficiency; to handle the increasing volume of heart and cancer patients; and maximize patient care, comfort and outcomes," says Bjelich of the new facility. Saint Francis is also expanding and renovating the Gene E. Huckstep Emergency Center/Level III Trauma Center, and continuing to build on the Occupational Medicine Clinic and Radiology Department.

"When patients come to a medical center, they want to know they will receive quality, compassionate and safe care," says Bjelich. "We have that here at Saint Francis. We measure it and benchmark it against the best in the nation, which allows us to continue to build upon our past successes and anticipate services needed for future generations."

James Wente, president and CEO of Southeast Missouri Hospital

James Wente has a long history at Southeast Missouri Hospital. He began working at Southeast in 1975 as assistant administrator and chief financial officer, was promoted to associate administrator in 1988, and became CEO in 1991. After more than 30 years of service, he will retire on July 31, 2009, and serve as CEO Emeritus until 2010. Before moving on to that next big step, he takes a moment to reflect on the status of health care in southeast Missouri.

One of Wente's biggest concerns is that, statewide, "Too many Missourians don't have adequate access to health care." He says that the health care industry needs to work together at the legislative level to improve this access. "Improved access would be a good thing," he says.

Wente also worries about the shortage of health care professionals, noting that fewer and fewer students are completing medical school. It's also growing increasingly difficult to recruit those who do graduate to practice in rural areas. Wente says that Southeast has been "actively recruiting" for specialties and general doctors within the hospital, most notably RNs, pharmacists, physical therapists, radiologists and lab technicians. In 1991, Southeast opened the College of Nursing and Health Sciences to help bring students to the local medical field, and also cooperates with the medical program at Southeast Missouri State University.

Even with the medical shortages, though, the hospital continues to grow, now serving about 600,000 people throughout southern Illinois and southeast Missouri.

"Cancer and heart disease are the No. 1 diseases affecting the quality and length of life in the nation," says Wente. Thus, these are also the fastest growing areas of the hospital and the medical field as a whole. He says Southeast has been "proactive" in this, with a heart hosptial, expansion, new technology in the heart and cancer departments, plans for a cancer center, and more. Orthopedics, maternal and child care, and endocrinology are also growing fields at Southeast.

"People recognize Southeast as a regional provider of medical care, so we don't take anything for granted. We're trying to do a better job to improve the quality of life," says Wente.

Debbie Sabella, CEO of Landmark Hospital

Debbie Sabella began her health care career as a nurse, and has worked her way up to be CEO of Landmark Hospital in Cape Girardeau.

She earned her bachelor's degree in nursing from Southeast Missouri State University and her master's in healthcare administration from Webster University in St. Louis. While working as a nurse at Southeast Missouri Hosptial, she worked closely with Dr. William Kapp to help open the orthopaedic department and was later asked to open the new Landmark Hospital. Signing on as chief clinical officer, she was active in ordering supplies and equipment and hiring personnel for the 30-bed facility, which opened in February 2006. After a year as chief clinical officer, she was promoted to CEO.

"Accepting the position at Landmark Hospital provided me with many new opportunities and challenges and definitely allowed me to advance my career," says Sabella. However, she still looks fondly on her years as a nurse and accredits much of her success to that experience. "Nursing has been really, really good to me," she says.

Her biggest health concern for the community is making sure the state government recognizes the need for long term acute care (LTAC) centers in Cape Girardeau.

"I don't know where people would go if there were no LTACs," she says. "I hope the government realizes what an important entity this is and helps us provide one to the community." Otherwise, she says, "People have to go to St. Louis or stay in the hospital, and that's not good for anybody."

Landmark focuses on patients with respiratory and infectious diseases and helps wean patients off their ventilators so that they can take the next step toward self-sufficiency. These areas continue to be the fastest-growing areas of Landmark Hospital.

"People have to be very sick to come here," explains Sabella. "They may have been in the intensive care unit of a hospital for weeks, but they can't go to a nursing home because they're not staffed appropriately to treat them. We want to improve the process and the ways to take care of these patients."

Charles Ancell, president and CEO of Missouri Delta Medical Center

Lifelong Sikeston resident Charles Ancell studied business administration and accounting at Southeast Missouri State University. He first came to Missouri Delta Medical Center as an auditor working from St. Louis. While doing a job at Delta, he was offered a position there and signed on as the chief financial officer in 1972. He continued with his education, earning his master's in business administration with an emphasis on management, and was promoted to CEO in 1990.

Ancell's chief objective at Delta is to keep an adequate number of top-notch professionals on staff, even as the medical field as a whole is seeing a sharp decline in available health care workers.

"My biggest concern is to maintain a medical staff with the specialties we need in order to operate effectively," says Ancell. He says that Delta sees the biggest needs in cardiology and oncology, partly because there is a shortage of these specialists and partly because these are some of the major diseases among the American population. In other words, there are simply not enough cardiologists and oncologists available to meet the growing need for them.

"It's very difficult to recruit for those positions and it takes a lot of effort to find just what we're looking for," says Ancell. He says Delta is working with various search firms to find staffers for these positions, and is also working on the overall employment package to attract more physicians and specialists to the hospital.

"We have some possibilities," he says.

In addition to cardiology and oncology, Ancell says he is seeing growth in the physical therapy department at Missouri Delta.