A conversation with St. Agnes Healthcare’s Keith Vander Kolk

Keith Vander Kolk took over as president and CEO of Saint Agnes Healthcare in December. He recently offered The Daily Record his thoughts on how Saint Agnes was working to keep up with the changing health care industry.

In a way, the answer is pretty simple, Vander Kolk said.

“The formula for us, in life, to be healthy really isn’t all that complicated,” he said. “Eat right, move around a little bit.”

But getting there is the tricky part – most of us can’t do it alone. But the health care industry is moving to fill that guiding role, he said.

“If I’m going to change my life, I am probably not going to do that on my own, because I haven’t in the past. It takes an influencer,” he said.

Every state in the country is moving from volume-based care to value-based care — Maryland has even incorporated that change into its payment system – and hospitals are now looking at patients with a slightly different set of goals, Vander Kolk said.

“How do we return you to the state of health and make sure you stay there, so that we’re not sick-care system, we are truly a health-care system?” he said.

Part of that process is making sure patients have clear instructions for when they leave the hospital, using everyday language rather than medical jargon, as well as the means to follow them, he said.

“Are we somehow staying connected and making sure they have a support system?” Vander Kolk said.

Primary care is a key part of achieving that goal, and Saint Agnes has approached this problem this problem by opening a primary care facility in Catonsville last year.

“The primary care relationship is probably the most important because it isn’t just a diagnosis of illness. It’s a recognition of health and how we keep you there,” he said.

More than a dozen physicians practice out of the facility, located in a former Room Store location at a strip mall on Route 40, which was designed to provide patients with more personal attention and comfort during their visit.

While primary care has been the focus, Vander Kolk said, Saint Agnes is working to provide urgent care – treatment for injuries and illnesses that don’t quite warrant trips to the emergency room – at the facility.

Within the next year, the system plans to have some specialists working out of the facility as well, either on a permanent or rotating basis, but is still evaluating which specialties make the most sense,  he said.

 Partnership with UMMS

Another way Saint Agnes is addressing patient health is through its partnership with the University of Maryland Medical System.

The two institutions announced in January they would work together to improve the health of the local population in West Baltimore, connecting patients to each other’s resources and making sure they didn’t needlessly duplicate the services they provide in the community.

“It allows us a think tank to say ‘what if?’” Vander Kolk said. “It’s a good fit for us to see how we can best deliver health care to patients locally.”

The two institutions complement each other well, with Saint Agnes focused on community-based care and UMMS more focused on research and academics, he said. There are opportunities to collaborate on outpatient services, ambulatory surgery and urgent care, among other areas, he said.

Saint Agnes is also a member of Ascension, the largest Catholic health system in the world, which in recent years has been encouraging its more than 100 member hospitals in 23 states and Washington, D.C., to share more information and best practices, Vander Kolk said.

“There wasn’t as much opportunity as there could have been to help each other and compare,” he said. “We can make ourselves better by working [with] and referring to each other.”

That integration also gives the system a vast supply of data about patient care and outcomes, and more clout to advocate for possible legislative changes that may be needed to better achieve their mission, Vander Kolk said.

“It’s a great time to be in health care,” he said. “I’m not much of a maintainer. I believe in change.”