Health reform, Hoosier-style.

• Author: Campbell, Michelle
• Position: Regional Report: Northwest

Northwest Indiana businesses join a health alliance.

Driving along the southwest shore of Lake Michigan, you wouldn't be surprised to learn that Northwest Indiana's top industry is steel. Your panorama in this area is filled by the impressive and expansive facilities of such companies as Inland Steel and USX Corp.

But many observers may not be able to name the No. 2 industry, which also happens to be the region's fastest-growing.

It's health care.

Northwest Indiana has an unusually strong lineup of health-care providers, who provide a smorgasbord of niche medical services for patients. In fact, a growing number of Chicago residents are crossing the border to have their health-care needs met in Northwest Indiana.

While some 35,000 employees go to work at Northwest Indiana steel mills, health care supports a large base of employees as well. The two biggest health-care employers are The Methodist Hospitals in Gary and St. Margaret Mercy Healthcare Centers in Hammond and Dyer. Each has roughly 3,100 people on the payroll. Lakeshore Health System, with hospitals in East Chicago and Hobart, provides a livelihood for another 2,400. The Community Hospital in Munster has some 1,900 employees, while Porter Memorial Hospital in Valparaiso has 1,600 on staff. And in Crown Point, St. Anthony Medical Center is a major employer, with more than 1,500 on its payroll.

Still, winning the employee numbers game is not the goal of healthcare leaders in Northwest Indiana. On the contrary, they believe their success will continue only if other industries grow and thrive.

"If we don't have manufacturing-type jobs in or around Northwest Indiana, then the social-service and medical agencies like hospitals are going to suffer and go away," says Steve Leurck, president and CEO of St. Anthony Hospital in Crown Point and former president of the Indiana Hospital Association.

Leurck's sentiments are echoed by other Northwest Indiana hospital CEOs. "We recognize the importance of the community and industry in our area," says Beth Kaminski, CEO of St. Mary Medical Center in Hobart. "We really survive and thrive on the economic impact that industry has on Northwest Indiana."

That kind of attitude, civic leaders say, is what makes this region stand apart. It's the willingness of healthcare professionals, employers, insurance companies and patients to sit down together, solve problems and chart the future.

That is part of the philosophy behind the Northwest Indiana Forum, a...