By Jennifer Eisenbart
Editor
For Lisa Just, a career in health care began with a job as a physical therapist.
But after getting a master’s degree in health services administration, she has also found herself moving through the administrative ladder at Aurora Health Care – her employer since 1987.
After working as Senior Vice President of Operations at St. Luke’s – Aurora’s flagship Milwaukee hospital – Just arrived in Burlington earlier this year as the company’s President of the Burlington/Walworth market.
Her first major announcement? Letting people know of Aurora’s $100 million commitment to Burlington and the surrounding area, which will include a ambulatory surgery center just outside Burlington, and renovations to both Aurora Memorial Hospital of Burlington and Aurora Lakeland Medical Center in Elkhorn.
After arriving in Burlington full-time, she learned just how proud residents are of their small-town hospitals.
It was a realization she reiterated on Monday, sitting down to discuss her role in the marketing strategy for the area.
“I believe that people are proud of this hospital in this community, and I want to make sure that continues on into the future,” she explained.
Just’s job, as she explained it, is to provide coordinated care for every patient. In simple terms, it means every patient getting all the care they need from various departments, including Aurora’s Visiting Nurse Association, behavioral health, clinics, hospitals and retail pharmacy.
A good example, she said, is a typical cardiac patient. In addition to likely spending time in diagnostics at the clinics and hospitals in the area, a coordinated care plan also oversees medication needs, and directs them, perhaps, to the new cardiac rehab center in Burlington.
“We take a look at it from that patient perspective,” Just explained. The idea is, she said, to make it so the patient sees the process as simple. For Aurora, that means making sure the electronic medical record shows everything the patient receives, and she is at the heart of coordinating that.
“Not only is it easy to understand, but easy to access,” she said, in terms of goals for that patient perspective.
Since arriving, Just has found a new home.
“The people are awesome,” she said. “Our caregivers are truly driven to give compassionate care.
“I’m just amazed at how entrenched they are at putting our patients first,” she added. “I’ve been very impressed with the caliber of specialties and subspecialties we have.”
She also said that community leaders are playing a huge part in remaining involved.
Part of that, right now, is figuring out just what the next six months will bring. The health care company is currently in a due-diligence phase with the possible land purchase for the ambulatory surgery center, and is trying to get all questions answered as it moves forward.
“I say that the answers are really needing to be looked at, and come from our providers and our caregivers,” Just explained about the process. “I can’t provide the answers. We need to provide (providers and caregivers) with the time to come together and look at each of the possibilities and determine what’s best for our patients and how they can best provide that care to our patients.
“That takes time.”
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