Company: Borgess Health, Kalamazoo, MI
Company Description: Borgess Health is the largest health care provider in southwest Michigan with more than 120 sites of care and 65 satillite clinics in 15 Michigan cities, eight owned or affiliated hospitals, a nursing home, abulatory care facilites, home health care, physician practices, ProMed Healthcare, managed care services and an air ambulance service. Borgess Health employs 4,500 employees.
Nomination Category: Company & Office Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Best Corporate Social Responsibility Program in North America

Nomination Title: Borgess Health: A Voice for the Voiceless

   1. Tell the story about what this nominated company achieved in the past year (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

          Borgess Health is a multifaceted health system comprised of three hospitals
          physician practices, home health services and a nursing home, located in
          southwestern Michigan in Kalamazoo County.  We are a values based health care
          provider that respects the dignity of human life and actively responds to the
          needs of the poor.
          
          Our values are:
          Service to the Poor:  Generosity of spirit, especially for persons most in
          need,
          Reverence:  Respect and compassion for the dignity and diversity of life;
          Integrity:  Inspiring trust through personal leadership;
          Wisdom:  Integrating excellence and stewardship;
          Creativity:  Courageous innovation;
           Dedication:  Affirming the hope and joy of our ministry.

          Close to 80,000 residents live in the County. Of that number nearly 28,000 have
          incomes at or below the Federal Poverty Level (FPL). During the past decade
          Michigan has experienced a severe economic downturn.  Kalamazoo County has
          experienced closures and reorganizations in the automotive, paper and banking
          industries. Those changes impacted the health insurance status of 4,500
          employees and 11,000 family members.  Many of the higher paying jobs, once held
          by persons without college degrees were replaced with lower paying jobs in the
          service area e.g., food preparation, home health aides, wait staff, retail, and
          janitorial service.  The mean income for these professions is $9.14 per hour.
          Many new employment opportunities are offered by small business that can not
          afford to provide health coverage at an affordable price to employees or do not
          offer coverage.  Persons who lack health coverage have difficulty accessing
          traditional health care and often delay seeking healthcare until they require
          more expensive forms of treatment and/or use hospital emergency departments as
          their primary source of health care.

          Consistent with our goal to be a good Corporate Citizen, Borgess implemented a
          charity care policy in 2001 that provides free health care to persons admitted
          to a Borgess Health medical center, with incomes at or below 200% of the FPL
          (attachment 1).  During fiscal year 2006 Borgess approved 6,824 charity care
          accounts totaling $3,981,000 (attachment 2).  In fiscal year 2006 we also
          expanded our billing and collections policy to provide a 30% discount to
          families with incomes at 300% of the FPL and 25% to persons with incomes of
          400% of the FPL.

          In addition to discounting or eliminating the cost of health services for
          patients, Borgess also provided $429,056 in financial support to healthcare and
          other safety net providers such as the First Presbyterian Health Clinic and
          Family Health Center, to name a few, that provide access to health care
          opportunities to persons who do not have health insurance or the means to pay
          for health services (attachment 3).

          In addition to the financial support to local organizations, members of the
          Borgess leadership team lend their expertise and leadership to forty health and
          human service organizations through Board memberships and collaborative
          partnerships. Of note, Borgess senior administrators, in collaboration with
          other community leaders, established the Kalamazoo County Health Plan, which
          serves 4,000 uninsured low income workers and the poorest, most vulnerable
          members of our community.

   2. List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:

          Supporting materials for this entry were submitted offline

   3. Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader of this nominated company:

          Paul Spaude became President and CEO of Borgess Health in 2005.  Paul has 28
          years of healthcare experience. He relocated from Wausau, Wisconsin where he
          was the Chief Administrative Officer of Aspirus, Inc. Borgess Health, the
          largest provider of medical care to southwest Michigan residents, is a
          multifaceted systems comprised of: three owned hospitals, an Ambulatory Care
          Center, Nursing Home, ProMed Healthcare (physician practices); and other health
          care services located throughout southwest and south central Michigan. Mr.
          Spaude is a fellow in the American College of Health Care Executives, and a
          Clinical Assistant Professor in the College of Health Sciences at the
          University of Wisconsin.