Jan L. Bergen, CEO, Lancaster General Health
Throughout 2019, Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health continued to grow and invest in our services, facilities and people, all in service to the community that has supported and sustained us for more than 125 years.
While 2019 had many highlights, I am most proud of your response to the increased demand we faced following the closure of the former-Lancaster Regional Medical Center. Despite significant staffing and other challenges, our teams throughout LG Health pulled together to provide safe, high-quality care.
To treat additional patients, we added a new temporary space in our Emergency Department. A planned renovation and expansion of Lancaster General Hospital will exponentially increase our ability to serve everyone in our community who needs care.
Also at LGH, we completed the transition to all-private inpatient rooms that began with the 2018 opening of the Frederick Building. Our beautiful, state-of-the-art Seraph-McSparren Pediatric Inpatient Center welcomed its first patients in the fall.
We continued to strengthen our clinical offerings close to where Lancaster County’s growing population lives and works, including the addition of specialty practices, our seventh Urgent Care location and the county’s first adolescent behavioral health inpatient unit, at Lancaster Behavioral Health Hospital.
To serve our patients well into the future, we announced the expansion of our Ann B. Barshinger Cancer Institute. Our new Penn Medicine HealthWorks division strengthened partnerships with area employers to deliver health care that meets the highest standards of quality, access, experience and value.
In 2019, LGH was one of just nine hospitals nationwide to earn prestigious recognitions for quality and safety: a 5-Star Quality Rating from CMS, an “A” Hospital Safety Grade from Leapfrog and a spot on Healthgrades’ America’s 50 Best Hospitals list.
We also celebrated the 50th anniversary of our groundbreaking Family Medicine Residency Program. And we were honored to receive the Foster G. McGaw Prize for Excellence in Community Service in recognition of our commitment to addressing social needs that impact our patients’ health, as well as priority community health concerns.
Our entire staff — including more than 70 newly hired physicians and advanced practice providers — is engaged in our ongoing efforts to create a culture of continuous improvement and become a highly reliable organization. In 2019, we implemented more than 7,000 of your ideas, which led directly to improvements in patient care, as well as your work environment, benefits and overall experience.
These are just a few of LG Health’s notable achievements during a very busy and memorable year. I am deeply grateful for your hard work and dedication as we continue to live our legacy of service to our community in 2020 and beyond.