Urban hospital's innovations save money, win support

Lutheran Medical Center (LMC) was a failing hospital in a depressed Brooklyn neighborhood until administrators and board members reassessed their purpose and goals. Now LMC is a community-oriented organization that offers acute hospital care for an urban population in excess of 350,000 people, provides cost-effective healthcare to more than 50,000 ambulatory patients a year, and has helped to revitalize its neighborhood. LMC's surprising range of accomplishments and activities include the following: Providing staff members to serve as resources and support staff for community groups; Organizing a neighborhood redevelopment committee, obtaining and administering grants, providing office space, and acting in an advisory capacity until the committee was able to separately incorporate; Creating an educational program for undereducated and underemployed area residents; Establishing a school health program to handle unmet routine healthcare needs of area children; Renovating an abandoned factory on the worst block in the community and relocating the hospital to that site; Founding the country's largest federally supported neighborhood health center; Signing a contract with New York state to provide healthcare for 10 percent less than the average cost of care for Medicaid patients.