Hospital president points to improvements, looks ahead as part of CommonSpirit

Significant improvements in existing services and the addition of new ones in Saint Joseph London’s more recent history are moving it in a regional direction, said Hospital President John Yanes.

“I think London is definitely becoming more of a regional provider. I think we’re going to build on that as we add more services based on our community needs,” he said. “I like to say we did not come this far to only go this far. We strategically look at what cases are leaving our area and what we can treat here within our means so patients can stay closer to home.”

In particular, the opening last December of a Level II neonatal intensive care unit and the recently announced certification of its Emergency Department as a Level III Trauma Center “validate our role as a regional provider,” said Yanes.

The upgraded neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) demonstrates Saint Joseph London’s goals of keeping health care local so residents of Laurel and the six other counties it serves don’t have to travel for treatment, creating a hardship on families. 

“So we’ve got babies who would have had to leave the community that we are now able to treat in London,” Yanes said. “And for those that need a higher level of care requiring them to go to Lexington for the next level up in NICU care … we are able to take those babies back once they are able to transfer back to a lower level.” 

The Emergency Department, which currently sees over 35,000 visits a year, is now the only Level III Trauma Center between Knoxville and Lexington. 

“Being right off the interstate, we do see a lot of trauma due to automobile accidents.” Yanes said. “We are able to accept transfers from smaller facilities within our seven-county service area that normally would have had to leave the area, perhaps going to Lexington.”

Regional service also means accepting more patients in general from smaller hospitals in southeastern Kentucky, he added. 

The expansion of the hospital’s orthopedics service is another significant recent development, and both inpatient and outpatient surgeries have increased. In 2020, it recruited and hired three orthopedic surgeons. 

“That allowed us to significantly develop our orthopedic service line,” Yanes said. “The Joint Commission offers certification in three separate orthopedic service areas: Hip/Knee, Shoulder and Spine. Saint Joseph London has successfully achieved this certification in all three areas.” It is one of five hospitals in Kentucky to do so.

An advanced surgical robot for some general and pulmonary procedures was added to Saint Joseph London almost three years ago. The robotics-assisted surgery is more precise and less invasive, with smaller incisions and less impact to surrounding tissues. The procedure time is often shorter, requiring less anesthesia.  

Surgical services were also enhanced last September when a surgeon certified in both hand surgery and reconstructive plastic surgery joined the hospital.

“That is a service that residents of our community would have had to leave the area for,” Yanes said. “And we have a lot of farm injuries, animal bites. Normally, those types of cases would have to leave the community and she’s able to care for them now in London.”

Yanes also listed the hospital’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic as one of the most significant recent developments in its history.: He became its president just four months before the U.S. declared the outbreak a national health emergency.

It was a calamity, he said, “but it highlighted the importance that our caregivers have in caring for our community. They worked tirelessly, they worked as a team, and to me that was a highlight of the culture we have at the hospital. When I say caregivers, it’s nurses, it’s physicians, and our nonclinical caregivers that worked together during the pandemic and work together every day.”

External Recognition

The hospital’s census is now back to pre-pandemic levels across the board. The inpatient census has been consistently above 100 patients beds since the beginning of this year. It is licensed for 150 beds; 120 are in operation.

Yanes pointed to the hospital’s ratings in independent evaluations in recent years, based on everything from safety to clinical outcomes. In fact, Modern Healthcare magazine, the leading health care industry publication, just named Saint Joseph London one of the 10 best in Kentucky and among the top 100 nationally.

“This just speaks to the culture we have established and developed in London that allows us to build on results, build on clinical outcomes, work with the bedside nurse, with the physician to care for our patients,” he said.

The recognition is not confined to patient care. Many hospitals struggle with recruiting staff, but the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce has named Saint Joseph London a Best Place to Work in Kentucky for seven consecutive years.

“I do believe culture has a lot to do with it,” Yanes said. “I do believe that our caregivers are treated with respect and they’re treated with kindness, though certainly there’s accountability. We like to say we’re caregivers not only for our patients but also for each other.”

What’s Ahead

Looking to future needs, a focus is on neurology, gastroenterology and urology. “Those are three areas that continue to be a need, and they’re pretty much a need across the country,” Yanes said.

A urologist will be coming on board in July, Yanes said, which will address that gap, and he expects the growing use of telehealth will be helpful in keeping patients close to home for neurology consultations. “GI,” he said, “continues to be a challenge from a recruitment perspective.”

Saint Joseph London continues to develop its women’s health services, particularly labor and delivery, and Yanes expects telehealth to be used beyond neurology consultations. “We see leveraging technology to be able to keep more patients close to home as something that is definitely in the immediate future for us,” he said.

Though the hospital and its caregivers study ways to meet future needs, Yanes said they keep in mind the facility’s roots in H.V. Pennington, MD, who opened it in 1926 and the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, who acquired it in 1946 with a focus on creating a faith-based hospital system.

“We cannot ignore who came before us and what they did,” Yanes said. “So I see as one of our pivotal roles as positioning our hospital for the next generation and for the generation after that. We are here for our patients today, but we also have to position our hospital to continue the legacy that Dr. Pennington and the Sisters of Charity established.

“As we adopt the CommonSpirit name and brand later this year, we value the foundation laid by generations of caregivers in London; this foundation will continue and be strengthened by this connection.”

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