The philosophical implications of being a more closely integrated member of the Conemaugh Health System are being evaluated and negotiated at the governance level. In other words, our board leadership is deciding the where's, how's and what-if's of acquiescing specific board decision making to a new system Board and what that will mean to Windber Medical Center.
At a lower level though, as a participant in the Health System's Strategic Planning Leadership Team, several realities have been specifically delivered to us from the Decision Support Team of CHS that are directly tied into WMC.
Just for fun, here's what we learned today: Windber Medical Center's market share is made up of 20% of people over 65 and that number is expected to grow to 25% by 2015. Because they are our primary customers, our next ten years should be relatively stable. Conversely, our 18 to 44 year old category is expected to decrease by 35% through 2015. If you're in the OB business that should make you say "wow." We need younger people to move into this area or else there won't be enough babies to go around.
WMC's outpatient visits have increased by 89% since 2000, and the Emergency Department has seen a 25.4% increase. Overall, our inpatient market share has changed by less than 1%. The biggest changes we've seen? Alum Bank dropped from 17% to 9% market share, and our New Paris market share has dropped from 7% to 3.65%.
WMC consistently had a market share of between 15 and 17% in the St. Michael area. That market share has dropped to 11% and Nason Hospital's market share increased by that same 6%. Does anyone know where Nason Hospital is located? Clearly, the people from St. Michael know.
What do these numbers mean to Windber Medical Center? It means that our work is cut out for us. We will address all of these numbers from a strategic perspective and make the appropriate adjustments, and, from an economic development perspective...SEND US YOUR 18 to 44 year olds.
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