The following is an excerpt from a recent “The Commute” podcast discussion featuring St. Joseph’s/Candler CEO Paul Hinchey. Comments have been condensed in the interest of space. The full interview is available at SavannahNow.com/podcasts or through mobile device podcast apps by searching “The Commute with @SavannahOpinion.”
Question: With the COVID=19 pandemic, health care is very much on our mind, and it’s sort of brought to specific attention to what we need to do to help keep ourselves safe. But that’s a larger conversation when it comes to health care, specifically a regional approach to health care. Before we dive deep into that, can you give us a history lesson on St. Joseph’s/Candler?
Paul Hinchey: “Our hospitals go way, way back, actually to the founding of Georgia. Candler was founded in 1804 as the first hospital in Georgia and the second oldest hospital in the United States. When Candler was founded, Thomas Jefferson wasn’t on the nickel, he was in the White House. That’s how far back it goes. Then St. Joseph’s opened in 1875. Later, the Mary Telfair Women’s Hospital joined the system, which was the first hospital in the country for women, and then the Georgia infirmary, which was the first African American Hospital in Georgia. Finally, there’s a hospital people don’t know about, the Georgia Railroad Hospital, which was folded into St. Joseph’s Candler. All this consolidation and partnerships is kind of a natural bridge to what we’re facing today on a much more regional basis.”
Question: When you talk ‘regional’ today, you’re referencing new facilities in Pooler and neighboring counties and even into South Carolina, right?
Hinchey: “When I, when I started in this business, health care was hospital-centric — people would get in the car and drive to the emergency room or drive to have a baby or drive to have surgery done. Not anymore.
“One catalyst for this change has been an increase in technology. In health care, technology has become more and more sophisticated, and more and more mobile, so to speak. That has allowed for expansion into areas that don’t have enough volume to support a hospital.
“The second thing is population growth, which has necessitated the expansion. As the ring of population has grown, people are no longer living as close to hospitals as they once did. That has necessitated a spiderweb where health care providers go out and service these populations. That’s essentially what we’ve done to provide health care in the neighborhoods of where people live. We’re aiming to provide 80{b5d304c96e94113bdfc523ff4218a1efff4746200bdb9eeb3214a56a1302f2e4} of the health care that people need on an outpatient basis so that they don’t have to hop in the car and drive to a hospital in Savannah.”
Question: In planning these facilities, do you look at different specialties to be in certain areas? Are there differences in what you offer in urban, more densely populated areas versus in more rural locales?
Hinchey: “We do that — to a point. In urban areas, you have to have the full alphabet for health care, from primary care to trauma care to sophisticated oncology care. As you get out into more rural areas, the top-of-mind health care is primary care and some type of urgent care or emergency care. And they would also like imaging and laboratory services,things that I can reasonably expect that my family might need during the course of the year So yes the two needs of those in rural areas does differ from those in the cities.”
