15 minute read
OU Health CEO
Richard Lofgren, M.D., MPH
OU Health Names Richard Lofgren, M.D., MPH, CEO of Health System
The OU Health Board of Directors on Feb. 4 announced Richard Lofgren, M.D., MPH, as CEO of OU Health, Oklahoma’s integrated, comprehensive academic health system.
Lofgren came to Oklahoma from UC Health in Cincinnati, where he has served as president and CEO since 2013. His executive experience in healthcare spans more than 40 years and includes leadership roles at University HealthSystem Consortium, University of Kentucky, Medical College of Wisconsin and University of Pittsburgh.
Lofgren is filling OU Health’s inaugural CEO position. The position was created as part of a historic merger in July 2021 making OU Health Oklahoma’s only fully integrated, comprehensive academic health system. Lofgren is a national thought leader within academic healthcare, and he is an expert in health system transformations and redesign, with a track record of uniting hospitals, clinics and centers into a single health system with a unified purpose. As CEO of OU Health, he will lead the overall health system and report directly to the OU Health Board of Directors. He will be responsible for the strategic vision, clinical and operational direction, strategic growth, quality and safety, financial performance, and ongoing integration of OU Health.
“We are very excited to announce Dr. Lofgren as the CEO of OU Health. He is uniquely qualified to lead our health system as we create a seamless experience for our patients and provide the highest-quality, research-driven healthcare,” said G. Rainey Williams Jr., board chair of the OU Health Board of Directors. “Dr. Lofgren’s experience is perfectly suited to advance our newly integrated health system as we transform health for all Oklahomans. He brings incredible experience and vision to OU Health as we transform into a single entity with leading clinical programs for the citizens of our state.”
Lofgren earned his medical degree from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He completed an internal medicine residency and a master of public health degree from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, serving as chief resident during his final year.
Lofgren has worked in accelerated leadership roles over the course of his lengthy career, most recently as the president and CEO of UC Health, the affiliated academic health system of the University of Cincinnati. He led the organizational transformation into a premier academic referral center, garnering unprecedented growth, expansion of services and process improvement across the system.
Prior to his tenure as CEO of UC Health, Lofgren held physician leadership roles that focused on executing large strategic visions, including healthcare redesign that elevates quality outcomes and operational efficiencies.
In addition to his expertise as a CEO, Lofgren brings considerable experience in the tripartite mission of academic healthcare. As an academic physician, Lofgren served as a tenured faculty member while at University of Kentucky, Medical College of Wisconsin and University of Pittsburgh. Throughout his career, he has earned 14 awards for teaching excellence in academic healthcare and created two different health services research centers aimed at improving healthcare outcomes for veterans. Lofgren has been a funded researcher and has numerous publications and scholarly contributions spanning his 40-year career.
Lofgren comes to Oklahoma after years in the Midwest. He has a wife of 43 years, three adult daughters and five grandchildren.
“I’d like to thank the OU Health Board of Directors for their confidence in my ability to lead OU Health in this inaugural role,” said Lofgren. “OU Health and the University of Oklahoma are uniquely positioned to transform healthcare across the state and region, and I’m looking forward to working with our physicians, providers, employees, the community, our state and our partners to realize the vision for a healthier Oklahoma.”
OU Health Edmond Medical Center is celebrating its 75th anniversary with activities throughout 2022.
Located at Second Street and Bryant Avenue, OU Health Edmond Medical Center began serving the Edmond community as Edmond Hospital in February of 1947. Earlier this year, leaders and staff launched a year-long celebration of the 75year milestone.
Why should any person, especially someone facing a medical emergency, travel beyond the Edmond area to access excellent healthcare, top-flight facilities and expertise that’s second to none? This is the underlying question, spoken or not, that drove civic leaders to establish an Edmond-based hospital to fill a healthcare void, and to grow and succeed in step with the local community.
With her own work history spanning 15 years at Edmond Medical Center, Leslie Buford, chief operating officer, is considered the resident expert on the hospital’s community roots. According to Buford, the hospital’s mission is perpetually driven by another question: “How can we serve not only medical needs, but enrich community life at every level?” The answer lies in what might be called a holistic approach to population health. “The attributes that make Edmond a great place to live, work and raise families include the community’s passion for education, arts and culture. The hospital’s unwavering support of what this community values is the key to mutual growth and ability to thrive.”
Spanning three-quarters of a century, the history of Edmond Medical Center clearly reflects its passion for community, demonstrated by deep engagement in myriad events that promote health and well-being across the lifespan. Scores of activities that promote healthy lifestyles continue to be initiated and/or sponsored by hospital leaders, and enthusiastically supported by employees and staff across work areas and responsibilities.
Buford said Edmond Medical Center has a great legacy, but equally important, a future bright with promise. For 75 years, Edmond Medical Center has reaped the benefits of capable and insightful leadership, including Lisa Wilson, M.S., MBA, who retired this year as EMC’s president.
“One of the greatest attributes of a community hospital — this community hospital — is its warm sense of family,” Buford said. “Nobody wants to make a hospital their literal home, but if you’re here because you require hospital care, you know you’ll receive exceptional care with genuine compassion, close to home.”
A combined emergency room and urgent care clinic opened this summer in Yukon. OU Health is partnering with Intuitive Health to operate the facility.
ER, Urgent Care Combination Opens
OU Health has launched a partnership with Intuitive Health to open a healthcare facility in Yukon that will combine emergency services with urgent care under one roof. The facility, located at 709 N. Czech Hall Road, began seeing patients in June.
OU Health and Intuitive Health expect to open facilities at three more central Oklahoma locations by 2024. These facilities will be the first of their kind in the region. With ER and urgent care in the same building, patients no longer need to self-diagnose what level of care they need. Patients will only be charged for the level of care required.
“The goal of the partnership is to minimize unnecessary ER utilization as well as improve the quality of care for patients,” said Leslie Buford, interim administrative executive of the OU Health Community Health and Primary Care division and interim president, OU Health Edmond Medical Center. “The facilities provide both urgent care and emergency services in a way that saves money for patients and their employers. No patient is charged emergency room prices for urgent care services if they come in during urgent care hours.”
Each facility will operate a full-service ER 24 hours a day with urgent care hours from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily including weekends, providing the most urgent care hours in Oklahoma City and surrounding areas. Outside of those hours, ER pricing applies. Facilities will have on-site lab equipment, a radiology suite with X-ray, and multi-slice CT scanners. Every patient will be seen by an ER-trained physician, and an assessment determines if the appropriate care is emergency or urgent care.
“Patients, now more than ever, are demanding healthcare that is convenient, high-quality, cost-effective and safe,” said Thom Herrmann, CEO of Intuitive Health. “We are excited to partner with OU Health to bring an innovative combined ER and Urgent Care model that offers patients exactly what they are looking for. Our new location will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week and will offer all of the same life-saving emergency services as a hospital ER, but if you only need urgent care level services your insurance company will only receive a small urgent care bill. Families will no longer need to choose between safety and cost. We promise the right care at the right price, close to home.”
Texas-based Intuitive Health, founded in 2008, partners with health systems nationwide to build, operate and launch retail healthcare facilities that combine urgent care and emergency room services. Intuitive Health’s patient-centered retail-care model is built on a proven business system focused on concierge-level customer service and transparency.
Hospital leaders and clinicians tour the new pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Unit at Oklahoma Children’s Hospital OU Health.
Oklahoma Children’s Hospital Opens New CICU
Oklahoma Children’s Hospital OU Health has opened a new pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (CICU). The 25-bed unit is the only pediatric CICU of its kind in the state, dedicated solely to the care of children with a range of heart conditions.
Morris Gessouroun, M.D., pediatric intensivist and immediate past chair of the Department of Pediatrics for the OU College of Medicine, said the CICU expansion sets in motion a positive domino effect, as it will allow fuller and more efficient utilization of all the hospital’s intensive care services — pediatric, pediatric cardiac and neonatal.
“With a total of 59 pediatric ICU beds, in addition to 96 licensed Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) beds, we are better positioned to provide the most appropriate level of care for serious and life-threatening heart conditions. Children’s Heart Center offers the most sophisticated treatment options for this special population,” he said. “Previously, PICU beds were often occupied by patients whose needs were more aligned with CICU care. The availability of 25 CICU beds will not only ensure more focused, comprehensive care, but will decrease the occurrences that require us to divert patients to facilities not as well-equipped to provide the robust measures these patients require.” Monica Kraft, MSN, R.N., director of the Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Unit, said the renovation and expansion have immense significance for the broader scope of pediatric care available in the state. According to Kraft, the data is impressive, but doesn’t reveal the bigger picture.
“We can make statistical projections, but the numbers don’t capture the most meaningful part of the story. Over the first five years, we expect CICU admits on average to increase by at least 80 patients annually. That creates more capacity in our PICU for children recovering from surgeries, long-term illness or trauma,” she said. “Because we can move NICU heart babies to CICU, we have the ability to care for 50 more neonates each year — critically ill newborns who need this level of support for a chance at life. We have the capacity to perform more than 300 open-heart surgeries annually, and we are developing pediatric heart transplant and VAD (ventricular assist device) programs. These are remarkable advances in capability and care. As a result, hundreds of children with a range of congenital heart conditions will experience better outcomes. They grow up to live healthy and fulfilling lives with families who cherish them. The multigenerational impact is vast.”
Although the COVID-19 pandemic prevented a celebration, the OU Health Stephenson Cancer Center is observing more than a decade of comprehensive care to people in Oklahoma and beyond.
Stephenson Cancer Center Marks Milestone
OU Health Stephenson Cancer Center, located on the OU Health Sciences Center campus in Oklahoma City, has marked more than a decade of delivering the most advanced, research-driven, comprehensive care for patients facing the challenges of a cancer diagnosis. Dedicated on June 30, 2011, Stephenson Cancer Center opened to patient care three weeks later.
A $12-million gift made in 2010 by Tulsa residents Charles and Peggy Stephenson, longtime supporters of the University of Oklahoma, capped a $50-million private fundraising campaign. Theirs was the largest single donation to the OU Health Sciences Center at the time. In 2019, the Stephenson Family Foundation presented a transformative $20 million gift to expand the center’s research mission. Extending the impact of the Stephenson family’s generosity, the cancer center committed to raise an additional $20 million, dedicated to the discovery of new ways to prevent, diagnose and treat cancer. The philanthropic support of the Stephenson family served to sustain momentum that helped secure the cancer center’s designation as a National Institutes of Health (NCI) Cancer Center in 2018.
NCI designation became a specific goal for Stephenson Cancer Center in 2001, when the Oklahoma State Legislature approved House Bill 1072. Passed with bipartisan support, the bill called upon the university to create a comprehensive cancer center to provide leadership in cancer treatment, research and outreach. Further, the overarching goal was to achieve national recognition as an NCI-designated cancer center. Over the past decade, more than $400 million has been committed to the support and ongoing development of the cancer center, making it the largest public-private biosciences initiative in Oklahoma history.
Stephenson Cancer Center is the only NCI-designated center in Oklahoma. NCI designation belongs to an elite group of cancer centers representing the top 2% of centers in the United States. Then and now, the cancer center demonstrates an unprecedented commitment to fighting cancer through improved treatment, clinical research, support programs and education.
Robert Mannel, M.D., Stephenson Cancer Center director, emphasized what it means to have such a resource in the state: “Cancer is the greatest challenge of modern-day medicine, possessing an intimidating force to irrevocably alter the lives of patients and their families. Cancer touches all of us, with one of two Oklahoma men and one in three Oklahoma women getting a cancer diagnosis during their lifetime. Stephenson Cancer Center’s vision is to eliminate cancer in Oklahoma and beyond. Its mission is to provide patient-centered, research-driven multidisciplinary cancer care. Such care is available in Oklahoma at Stephenson Cancer Center.”
In addition to generous private philanthropy, several community partners played key roles in the growth of Stephenson Cancer Center. These include the State of Oklahoma, through tobacco tax revenues, the University Hospitals Authority and Trust, Oklahoma Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust (TSET), Chickasaw and Choctaw Nations, OU Health, Presbyterian Health Foundation, and the University of Oklahoma.
The presence of this resource makes it possible to offer a broad range of latest-generation therapies and research-driven clinical trials. Further, it allows patients to access world-class care close to home, eliminating the necessity of travel beyond state borders. This benefit preserves patients’ networks of physical, mental and emotional support found in family, friends and spiritual communities.
Stephenson Cancer Center is a national leader in early and late-phase clinical trials, and is one of 32 Lead Academic Participating Sites in NCI’s National Clinical Trials Network. Stephenson Cancer Center also houses two research centers — TSET Health Promotion Research Center and the Center for Cancer Prevention and Drug Development.
“We’re keenly focused on research-driven patient care that provides access to tomorrow’s therapies today. It is research that drives us toward a future reality in which the burden of cancer is reduced or eliminated,” Mannel said. “Here, we have harnessed the resources that will one day help to defeat this adversary, which has taken such a toll on families across the globe. Stephenson Cancer Center is an inspiring model of what we can accomplish as Oklahomans united for such a compelling cause.”
The OU Health Sciences Center is taking part in two federal studies to better understand “long COVID” symptoms in both adults and children.
The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center is taking part in federally funded studies to better understand the longterm effects of COVID-19 in both adults and children.
The studies are part of the RECOVER (Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery) Initiative of the National Institutes of Health. Its aim is to learn why some people have prolonged symptoms (often called “long COVID”) or develop new or returning symptoms after the acute phase of infection from SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
COVID-19 has resulted in long-term symptoms rarely seen with other viral infections. Some people who have been infected return to normal quickly, while others struggle with lingering symptoms for months. The most common “long COVID” symptoms in adults include pain, headaches, fatigue, “brain fog,” shortness of breath, anxiety, depression, fever, chronic cough and sleep problems. Symptoms in young people include fatigue, chronic cough, memory issues, neurological problems and skin issues. Because the virus causes entire organ systems to become inflamed, the heart, lungs, kidneys and other organs may experience ongoing problems.
Investigating “long COVID” symptoms is crucial because they may affect future health and increase the need for healthcare services. Better understanding symptoms is an important first step for preventing and treating them.
“This study will help us understand some of the peculiarities of the COVID-19 virus in the pediatric population and what resources will be needed to care for these children in the future,” said Oklahoma Children’s Hospital OU Health pediatric emergency medicine physician Amanda Bogie, M.D., who also serves as Professor and Section Chief of Pediatric Emergency Medicine in the Department of Pediatrics of the OU College of Medicine. She is leading the pediatric “long COVID” study.
The OU Health Sciences Center is uniquely qualified to serve as a study partner for this NIH initiative by leveraging the Oklahoma Clinical and Translational Science Institute (OCTSI). The OCTSI unites universities, nonprofit organizations, American Indian communities, public agencies and primary care providers in research addressing the health outcomes of Oklahomans. OCTSI’s existing infrastructure is being used to enroll patients from across the state, including those in rural and medically underserved areas. The OU Health Sciences Center is among more than 30 academic healthcare institutions across the nation enrolling patients in the study.
