They began as W.A. Foote Hospital, a literal neighborhood hospital 100 years ago, and now Henry Ford Allegiance Health is a regional health hospital system. President and CEO Georgia Fojtasek joined WKHM recently to talk about the journey. “I’m very proud that we’ve been able to build a system of quality based on best-practice health care.” Fojtasek said, “we’ve been very focused on what our community needed.”
With all the growth that they’ve experienced over the last century, Fojtasek said their mission is still quality care. She said that as they’ve recruited specialists in continue to build their support staff, they’ve been able to “provide more care in Jackson, people want to get care in their hometown; traveling, especially when you’re really sick, is hard to do.” Fojtasek is proud of the advancements made to help make sure people can get the treatment they need close to home, and she credited Henry Ford Health System with making sure people get top quality care. “What Henry Ford Health System brings with their research and teaching missions, and an array of sub-specialists, we’re just continuing to build and grow.” She said.
The Henry Ford/Allegiance Health partnership is one of the more recent milestones in the health system’s history, but Fojtasek said the partnership was a great fit for both. “They’ve been the perfect partner for us,” she said. “The focus on community and the focus on giving back is replicated between our systems, and also the concern for people. Culturally there’s alignment, and that’s really critical.”
So, what’s next for Henry Ford Allegiance Health? “We have a strategic plan for the system for the next 5 to 10 years.” Fojtasek said, (We want to) look at where we want to be geographically, we’re going to have more capacity particularly now that we’re through the integration part and IT conversion, to look at the geographic locations for Henry Ford Allegiance Health, and there’s a lot of focus on the population health (and) community-based care.”
