An established quality assurance program, a commitment to community education and local charities, and a dedication to providing their patients the most comprehensive care possible are just a few of the reasons that Southern Indiana Pediatrics (SIP) was voted the Grand Prize Winner of the 2003 Practice of the Year competition by our panel of judges.
Add to the mix that SIP is open seven days a week and 365 days a year — yes, even on major holidays — and you've got a practice that clearly goes the extra mile for its patients.
"The partners of this practice have determined that availability to patients is a core value," says Sandy DeWeese, chief operating officer for SIP. It's part of what the partners and employees call the "SIP Heart," a dedication to providing the children and parents in the area with medical care and education that are second to none.
The practice includes 11 pediatricians and four nurse practitioners, and books over 100,000 patient visits each year at three office locations — two in Bloomington and one in rural Bedford, Ind. The sheer volume is impressive enough before you consider some of the special circumstances associated with treating children.
"One of the big challenges is you've got two sets of patients," says James Laughlin, MD, president of SIP. "You have the child who's your patient, and then you have the parent. You have to have the ability to communicate with the child as well as the parent. That makes us unique, because part of the success ... [in] healthcare and good relations is making a connection with both the child and the parent."
Center of the community
From the beginning, SIP has seen itself as more than just a medical practice.
"We've actually had a strategic plan that we've revised every year or two since we started," says Laughlin. "One of the aspects of our strategic plan was that we want to become the place where people come in our service area for pediatric information and advice. In order for us to do that, we have to make ourselves available as a source of information and education."
In that role, the practice and its partners work with the Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis to provide continuing medical education on pediatric- or nursery-related topics to pediatric subspecialists, family practitioners, nurses, and other local healthcare workers. SIP's annual CME conference, now in its fourth year, has grown steadily in size each year and attracts providers across the state. SIP physicians and nurses also teach community education classes on child and adolescent health and safety at the YMCA and through the local school system.
When they are not involved in community outreach efforts, many SIP partners and employees are engaged in charity work through the SIP Foundation. In addition to donations to a local children's science museum and the Bloomington Hospital Foundation, SIP has helped raise money for the Monroe County School System to purchase milk vending machines to replace soda machines in school cafeterias, provided bicycle helmets at cost or for free to local families with children, and distributed information to local driver's education companies on safety tips for teenage drivers — all of which have helped to raise the profile of Southern Indiana Pediatrics as the premier center for comprehensive childcare and education.
Those efforts are sustained within the practice as well. To provide one-stop care to its patients, SIP contracts with a pediatric specialists in cardiology, urology, pediatric surgery, and neurology to practice on-site as needed.
"Our practice is big enough, and we service a big enough geographic area, that it basically becomes a convenience factor for patients to just come to our office for consultations and appointments or follow-ups from surgery," says Laughlin.
SIP collects demographic and insurance information for the specialists, provides nursing support, and collects a fee based on the time and space each specialist uses. "It becomes cost-effective for the specialist to come here and provide that follow-up or consultation locally," says Laughlin.
It also allows SIP to provide its patients with a high level of consistent care. Patient records are all kept in one place, which allows both primary-care physicians and specialists immediate access to the most recent information and to each other. Hallway consultations between pediatricians and specialists are one of the perks of this arrangement, according to Laughlin.
Creating a one-stop practice for both primary and specialty care isn't just good for patients, it's good for business. "We don't look at this necessarily as a revenue generating thing for us, and I don't think the specialists look at the visit itself as a revenue generator for them, but the business they get because of that consultation — and most of it ends up with the surgical specialties — is good," says Laughlin.
