ANALYST DISCUSSES HELATH CARE'S CONDITION

Paul Keckley, a health care market researcher, believes effective health care communities don't start with big buildings or budgets, but instead are built one program at a time.

Keckley, president of The Keckley Group of Nashville, Tenn., a national health care research and consulting firm, shared the results of his firm's four-month study of the health care needs of this area with about 900 people attending the St. Francis Medical Center's annual dinner Monday night at the Show Me Center.

The study found that this area as a whole -- not just Cape Girardeau hospitals -- is in dire need of more primary care physicians and to recruit them will require a community effort.

"For every one primary care physician who receives his diploma, 2.5 medical specialists are graduated to the marketplace," said Keckley. "Over the next two years hospitals will compete for what has become a prized commodity.

"The average primary care physician has 11 offers on the table upon finishing his residency," he said. "So recruiting is no longer just a hospital issue -- it's a community issue."

Other top issues the study revealed include health care costs and specialty care for the mentally ill, senior citizens and sick children.

"The main consensus we discovered was that the level of care in this community, this area, is good, but the system it was providing was not," said Keckley. "To remedy an ill with the system itself will take regional coordination and collaboration between all hospitals and health care networks."

Keckley talked about how much health care has changed in recent years, and how the issue itself has become a focal point of modern society.

"At what point did health care become something that's on page one of the `Wall Street Journal' and `USA Today'?" Keckley offered. "When did it become the number one issue with people over the age of 60? When did it become the caliber of issue that would make or break an elected official's political career?"

To those questions, Keckley had no answers. But he did reflect on the rising concern of health care costs in all facets of the community.

Business and community leaders and citizens interviewed by The Keckley Group for purposes of the survey all put forth a primary concern about health care costs. Physicians, on the other hand, told researchers they think costs are reasonable and should not be an issue.

Keckley believes that the physicians and the community and business leaders should sit down at a table, both sides armed with facts, and discuss health care costs.

"It's the only way to reach an amiable agreement," he said.

"But don't get buried in the numbers," urged Keckley. "Deal with the realities."

Keckley challenged health care professionals and users to remedy some of the problems that plague the area health care community.

The challenge was echoed by Robert B. Hendrix, president of the St. Francis Medical Center Board of Directors.

"It will be difficult, but it will be more than worthwhile for the whole community if we can meet the current needs, and address new ones as they come," said Hendrix. "We ask for your understanding and support in aiding us in this journey into the next century."