GREENFIELD — Steve Long isn’t the type to sit idle.
As he approaches his 10-year work anniversary as president and CEO of Hancock Regional Hospital this summer, Long is proud to say that the healthcare network he leads is constantly evolving.
Throughout 2023, many of his top officials took on bigger and broader roles to move the organization forward, he said.
Tamara Strunk, a registered nurse who previously served as Assistant Vice President of Nursing, was promoted to Vice President of Quality, Risk and Regulatory Compliance last year.
Dr. Julia Compton, an oncologist who came on board to help launch the Sue Ann Wortman Cancer Center in 2015, was promoted to Vice President of the Oncology Service Line last summer.
Compton said her new role doesn’t diminish her passion for caring for patients.
“I am first and will always be a physician at heart, no matter my role,” she said. “As the need for oncologic care in Hancock County has increased, I am thrilled to be able to step into this new leadership position whereby I can see patients and also be a part of the leadership team that is growing cancer care in our community. I can be both physician and hospital administrator in this role … and I am hopeful it will serve our community as our work with oncology continues in our community.”
Hancock Health’s restructuring extends beyond the medical staff.
Hancock Health is in a state of restructuring, as its leadership team takes on new and expanded roles to serve the growing health needs of the county.
Tom Russo | Daily Reporter
Nancy Davis, who was hired as executive director of the Hancock Regional Hospital Foundation (since renamed Hancock Health Foundation) in May 2013, made the move to Assistant Vice President of Guest Services last year.
Jenn Wells, who started out as the health network’s Director of Marketing in 2015, transitioned to Assistant Vice President of Customer Experience & Brand Strategy last June.
Long said the lengthy list of restructuring is yet another way Hancock Health is moving toward the goal of being the healthiest county in Indiana.
He proudly points out that Hancock Regional Hospital has been awarded an A rating from the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades for the seventh time in a row, making it one of only two hospitals in the state to have ever done so.
The grades are provided by The Leapfrog Group, an independent nonprofit organization committed to driving quality, safety and transparency in the U.S. health system.
“That commitment to quality is key,” said Long, who credits his predecessor, Bobby Keen, for setting the bar high for the health network’s ongoing growth and success.
Restructuring the hospital’s leadership has been an essential step in moving the hospital forward, said Long.
“Our future is growing with the population of Hancock County, so we have restructured our teams so we are focused on that growth,” he said.
Long pointed out that one example of that is the hospital’s longtime chief medical officer, Mike Fletcher, switching his role to Senior Vice President of Employer Strategies.
“He’s running our employer strategy now, so he’s out there leading directly to employer strategies, employee based clicks, he’s doing all of that now.
“Theresa Lueder, who was one of our assistant vice presidents over surgery, is now leading all of our acute care areas, ER and surgery” as Vice President of Patient Care, he said.
“We are really trying to grow those areas and have had phenomenal success,” said Long.
The Andis Women’s and Children’s Department, for example, has had 20 percent more births over the past year, he said.
Long credits the growth in large part to the hospital’s partnership with Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital, which has partnered with the hospital since 2021 to provide an advanced level of newborn care at Hancock Regional Hospital, including a special care nursery for moderately ill infants and babies born up to eight weeks premature.
Hancock Health has created a number of partnerships with major health providers in recent years, including the Mayo Clinic and St. Vincent Heart Center, to expand its level of in-house services.
“All of those partnerships are elevating our level of service,” said Long. “People look at us now and say, ‘Oh, that’s not the little county hospital it was 20 years ago.”
FORWARD THINKING
Long said Hancock Health’s business model has always been based on growth, but that the county’s rapid growth in recent years has made it even more necessary to expand its services.
“We are trying to get way ahead of that growth. That’s why we opened the cancer center eight years ago,” he said.
“We didn’t even have a cancer center 10 years ago, and now we have thousands of patients a year going through here and are looking at how we can expand our facility because we’re full. Dr. Compton is now over the oncology service line, so she is the one responsible for growing that.”
Long said the cancer center staff is already pulling extra shifts, providing extended hours for patients to receive cancer treatment throughout the day. He also anticipates the center will one day add an additional linear accelerator, referring to the high-price piece of equipment designed to kill cancer cells with laser-like precision.
Hancock Health’s surgery center has also experienced rapid growth, he said, after undergoing a multi-year, multi-million-dollar renovation starting in 2021.
Long said the hospitals’ combined surgery and operating centers now accommodate an estimated 7,000 surgeries each year.
“We also have a number of specialties that are just going gangbusters,” he said.
“We’ve got two neurologists who are just backed up for months, and we have endocrinology, which we never had before. We’re bringing in services to the community that it never had before, and it’s really bringing a lot of people here from east central Indiana,” said Long.
“If you’re in Rush or Fayette or Henry County, they’re coming this way for higher-level service, and this is the place they stop.”
Hancock Health’s three wellness centers have also experienced incredible growth in recent years, said Long.
The first center in Greenfield was built in 2000, followed by the addition of the McCordsville wellness center in 2015 and the New Palestine wellness center in 2020.
“Ten years ago, we had just one wellness center, but now we have three centers with 14,000 (collective) members, and they visited us a half million times last year,” said Long.
Long also pointed out the ongoing development at Hancock Health’s Gateway Park on the west side of the county as a major source of growth for the organization.
Located on the southwest quadrant of the I-70 interchange at Mt. Comfort Road, the park is home to Hancock Health’s Gateway Immediate Care Center as well as the newly opened Randall’s Residence senior living facility.
A pediatric oral surgery center is also being developed there as plans for a new hotel and conference center will soon get underway.
Harold Gibson, director of property development for Hancock Health, said construction of a Hancock Health medical office is now underway with hopes of adding a second hospital onsite within the next 10 years.
“Significant growth is happening across the board,” said Long.
“Things like Gateway make a huge impact on the willingness of somebody to come and live in this county, so that’s what we’re about. … As an organization, our business model is providing services to people, and the more people there are to provide services to, the better we are,” he said.
“Our growth strategy is not just to grow Hancock Health. It is to grow the county,” Long continued. “We think industrial development is wonderful, but what is more wonderful for us is that people live here. We’re all about rooftops and residents, (which require amenities), and healthcare is an amenity as well,” he said.
Long said he’s confident that with the latest staff restructuring, Hancock Health is set to meet its ongoing goal of providing quality healthcare for a growing population.
“Frankly, we believe we do this (healthcare) thing better than just about anybody else, and we’d like to have more and more people come use the services we have,” he said.
As the health network focuses on future growth, its leadership board is also focused on how to best celebrate an upcoming milestone — the hospital’s 75th anniversary in 2026.
“It’s going to be a banner year,” said Long.
