Franciscan St. Elizabeth Health will open its new Franciscan Healthy Living Center on Monday, July 9.
The Franciscan Healthy Living Center will be located on the lower level of the Lafayette Heart Institute Building, 1116 N. 16th St. in Lafayette on the campus of Franciscan St. Elizabeth Health – Lafayette Central.
The Franciscan Healthy Living Center is a concept that will bring together medical professionals to help address the needs of patients who have chronic conditions, including heart failure, diabetes, outpatient palliative care and more.
“The Franciscan Healthy Living Center is a first for Franciscan St. Elizabeth Health and Franciscan Alliance,” said Terry Wilson, president and CEO of Franciscan St. Elizabeth Health. “By focusing on chronic conditions, we hope to provide better care and offer more one-on-one patient education. All of this improves patients’ lives and reduces hospital readmissions.”
The Franciscan Healthy Living Center is one step in developing an accountable care organization (ACO). Franciscan Alliance was selected to be one of 32 organizations to receive a Medicare contract to develop a Pioneer ACO in late 2011.
“This clinic will function from an advanced practice nurse model and will include a robust multidisciplinary support system. This clinic is not meant to replace the primary care physician or specialty physicians, such as cardiologists, but to enhance their care being provided,” said Karen Bullard, R.N., director of Cardiovascular Services for Franciscan St. Elizabeth Health.
“The care of chronic illness, such as heart failure, is very complex and requires strong education, coaching and long-term support through services such as dietary, pharmacy, social services, rehab, home health, palliative care and potentially hospice. These services will be in coordination with the patient’s physicians,” added Bullard.
The first three components of the Franciscan Healthy Living Center will open on July 9: Diabetes Education, Outpatient Palliative Care and the Heart Failure Clinic.
The Franciscan St. Elizabeth Health Diabetes Center will relocate from its current location in the Medical Arts Building on the campus of the former Home Hospital from June 29 to July 8. Once it moves into the Healthy Living Center, it will change its name to Diabetes Education. Franciscan St. Elizabeth Health developed the Heart Failure Clinic by hiring Connie Brutus, R.N., as the organization’s heart failure navigator.
Posted by Rob Ford at 10:06 AM