On May 15, the Madison Chamber of Commerce hosted its inaugural Heartbeat of Healthcare event.

The event featured a panel of government officials and healthcare experts.

Mary Lynne Wright, the president of Madison Hospital, talked about the hospital’s tremendous growth.

When the hospital opened on February 28, 2012, Wright projected it would take five to ten years to reach its 90-bed capacity.

Thanks to major growth events for the City of Madison, that point was reached in less than half the time.

Wright said the hospital is currently running behind the growth curve of the city.

The hospital runs at about 80 percent capacity.

“When you’re at 80 percent occupancy of your licensed beds, you’re beyond the time that you need to be growing,” said Wright.

Expansion is badly needed for the ER, labor and delivery suites, imaging, pharmacy, and operating rooms.

The patient tower will eventually be expanded to 200 beds. Since its opening, the hospital has seen over 55,000 patient admissions, 40,000 surgeries, and 10,000 births. Over 900,000 patients have passed through the front doors. The hospital currently employs about 800 people.

Madison Hospital provides around $61 million annually in uncompensated care. Uncompensated care is medical care provided to people who have no insurance and cannot afford to pay.

Wright is proud of the fact the hospital can provide care to the entire community. No one is turned away.

“As a not-for-profit health care provider, all revenue is reinvested to provide advanced medical services and equipment,” said Wright.

Madison Hospital is part of the Huntsville Hospital (HH) Health System.

The HH Health System is the third largest publicly owned hospital system in the United States and currently consists of fifteen hospitals in North Alabama and Tennessee.

Wright talked about why the HH Health System has expanded to so many areas.

“It’s so we can make sure that health care stays in those communities. Small hospitals are closing in the state of Alabama. Our mission is to keep those small hospitals open,” said Wright.

The HH Health System is the second largest employer in Madison County. Huntsville Hospital and Madison Hospital together have over 7000 employees and a payroll of nearly $718 million.

Wright is proud of those numbers because it means patients are getting the care they need.

Jeremy Blair, CEO of WellStone, Inc., was a panelist at the Heartbeat of Healthcare event.

“Five years ago, a mental health provider would not be on this stage, but we’ve come a long way in recognizing that mental health care is health care,” said Blair.

Blair said WellStone has been laser-focused on increasing access to mental healthcare services.

According to Blair, around 500 WellStone employees provide service to 12,000 clients a year.

In addition to its adult services, WellStone currently provides a children’s crisis team and will soon open a pediatric inpatient center. They also have a children’s behavior clinic in Madison.

Workforce recruitment and funding are current issues his company faces, acknowledged Blair.

Blair said WellStone spends about a tenth of its budget on uncompensated care.

Wright acknowledged that workforce shortages are an issue to be overcome by the hospital system as well.

“The future of healthcare is going into our schools right now. We need to work with our high schools and middle schools to get children interested in being in health care,” said Wright.

Madison Hospital currently partners with Madison City Schools on a workplace training program and a student ambassador program that starts in the fall.

“One of the great things about being in healthcare is that you get to train the future, you get to train those people who want to be in healthcare,” said Wright.

On a sobering note, Wright talked about some of the issues facing healthcare workers today.

“What concerns me is we are losing people in healthcare because they are just done. They are tired of being kicked and spit at and hit and cursed at and underappreciated,” said Wright.

Madison County Commission Chairman Mac McCutcheon referenced the exciting growth experienced in Madison and the surrounding area and the jobs, amenities, and services now available to people.

“Every single community needs to have good health care. From an economic standpoint, the number one thing that is so important is people have got to be healthy for all those things to happen,” said McCutcheon.

McCutcheon hopes that caring and competent healthcare professionals continue to want to work in healthcare.

“If we don’t have good healthcare workers, the future of healthcare is concerning to me,” said Wright.

“We’ve got to continue to do everything we can to recruit the best we possibly can to come into our hospitals and to come into our health care entities to continue to take care of our population,” said Wright.

At the close of the summit, Wright was surprised with a commendation award signed by Governor Kay Ivey.