Dunlap Community ready for challenges facing small hospitals

ORRVILLE -- The new chief executive officer of Dunlap Community Hospital says she knows that small rural hospitals have a tough row to hoe in today's world of mega-medical facilities, but believes they can succeed by doing the things that have always worked to their advantage flawlessly.

Marchelle Suppan took the reins of Dunlap Community last November from Rod Steiger, who had held them since 2006. Steiger decided to return to the banking industry in which he had previously been involved, becoming president of the Wayne Savings Community Bank.

Suppan had been volunteering her time at Dunlap Community while looking for a new position after leaving an early-stage tech company working with spinal diagnostics, where she was vice president of market development.

But during that time at Dunlap Community Suppan was named vice president of medical affairs, and later senior vice president of medical affairs, before being named CEO of the hospital by the board in November.

Suppan said she wants to enable Dunlap Community to continue to capitalize on its traditional strengths in which "patients are people, not numbers," and where providing family-centered care is mission one.

One of the hospital's greatest assets, Suppan said, is its board of directors, which "has an intense desire to meet the needs of the community." She said the best thing about Dunlap Community's board is that it is composed of volunteers from Orrville for whom the service is "a labor of love" rather than a paid obligation. She said the board provides guidance on "many planes," and especially in the area of strategic planning.

Another major part of the equation, she said, are the hospital's excellent physicians who make "one-on-one care" a priority.

Suppan said running a smaller hospital is, in many ways, more of a challenge than running a mega-facility, largely because it does not have the "economies of scale" that its larger counterparts enjoy. In addition, she notes that hospitals have a regulatory compliance obligation that is five times that of banks.

"It's hard to sustain the costs of compliance with federal, state, county and municipal regulations," Suppan said, noting the hospital has one full-time employee whose entire job is making sure the facility is in compliance with all regulations.

Another challenge Dunlap Community faces, Suppan said, is difficulties in recruiting physicians and nurses.

The problem, she noted, is that most physicians emerge from medical school buried under a mountain of debt that they must pay off. In order to do that, they need to practice in a city where they have access to a high volume of patients. She said few can afford the luxury of practicing in a small town where they may not able to attract enough patients to cover their debt load.

A recent poll cited by the CEO says that only 4 percent of new physicians want to practice in a rural environment.

In addition, Suppan noted, fewer physicians these days are entering the primary care field, and most want to practice in an environment where they are not on call all day every day.

Suppan said that while Dunlap Community has "a beautiful and up-to-date facility" having undergone a major addition five years ago, she said there are still plenty of challenges that need to be met, including being able to make major investments in state-of-the-art equipment and the hospital's IT platform.

Suppan said the hospital uses shared mobile digital mammography and MRI units, but would love to have an MRI of its own. However, the costs of such a unit runs into the millions of dollars and such a purchase is not realistic at this time.

She said the hospital also needs funds to invest in physician recruitment, especially in the area of family medicine. In addition, Suppan hopes to establish a "hospitalist" program at Dunlap Community. A hospitalist, she said, is a physician who works in the hospital taking care of the medical needs of patients. This frees up more time of the primary care doctors.

She said her goals include strengthening the obstetrics department and women's services, continuing to work with and support the Health Care Cost Reduction Task Force community initiative which has now expanded to include six so-called beta sites, continuing to strive for ongoing excellence in patient safety, reducing costs through LEAN training and hospital process analysis and improvement, put in place correct coding initiatives, and support community wellness initiatives.

"We're always looking for ways toward process improvement and efficiencies, said Suppan, adding, "We need to work with people in the community, with board and staff, to arrive at our best possible performance. We have to integrate and work with the physicians and work on our strategic development process. There is so much more impact and self-actualization we can have. We have to bring all those pieces together."

Suppan said, "I believe things are going to get better. I have faith in our staff and in our board. But it will require change and increased collaboration. We have to change, but we can do it. The is no such thing as 'business as usual' anymore."

Reporter Paul Locher can be reached at 330-682-2055 or e-mail plocher@the-daily-record.com.