Live your life with integrity and make a difference in the lives of others.

It's a poetic statement, one we should all live by. But for David Crane, president and chief executive officer of Adventist Midwest Health, the message is the core of his personal mission statement.

Meet a person's physical needs first, and then you can serve them spiritually. Maybe even change their lives. As in Proverbs 3:27, when a neighbor asks for help, you deliver.

"We are God's hands," David said. "Two thousand years ago, Jesus was here in person. But today, we're His hands doing His healing, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit."

Since joining Adventist Midwest Health in October 2006, David has combined his love of business and helping people into a mission of changing patients' lives through compassion and healing.

As the son of a missionary, David grew up with the "give-back" mentality. Packing mules to deliver medical supplies in Guatemala was nothing unusual. He enjoyed the servant approach to life, he said.

Today, his family, including wife Heidi, and sons Andrew, 17, and Zachary, 15, continue to take mission trips to faraway places such as Nepal, Peru, Rwanda, and Tonga.

"I can remember as a child in the mission field, someone knocking on our door asking for permission to go through our trash for food," he said. "That has left a permanent impression on me, because we live in such relative affluence here in North America. Heidi and I hope our sons grow up with a sense of responsibility to others."

Christ reached out to touch all in need, and Adventist Midwest Health's nurses and employees will reach more than 500,000 patients this year alone. "I believe each one of us has a responsibility to open doors to our patients to meet Jesus personally," David said. "We will create opportunities for lives to be changed.

"I came from Littleton Adventist Hospital in Colorado," David said. "There is a housekeeper there named Maggie who comes in to clean the patients' rooms. Almost always, she prays with them. She feels empowered to do that. We can make a difference in patients' lives no matter what our role is in the organization."

David's first order of business for Adventist Midwest Health is to revisit the strategic plan and make sure that each hospital meets the "Mom test."

"I want to make sure I can admit my mom to any of our hospitals for any service, day or night, and have confidence that she will receive the best care possible," he said.

Perhaps one of the most exciting undertakings within AMH is the new Adventist Bolingbrook Hospital in Bolingbrook, Illinois, scheduled to open in December.

"My whole life I've wanted to be a part of building a hospital from scratch," David said. "This is the closest I've gotten. The facility is just the beginning. We have the opportunity to re-design healthcare and the type of experience our patients will have."

The Adventist Bolingbrook Hospital executive team has created a declaration of the kind of hospital they will strive to be—offering patients a personalized, unique experience not found in any other area hospital.

The idea revolves around the realization that we're not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience. "Because of this, we will dispense peace with our procedures, solace with our surgeries, and meaning with our medicine," the declaration reads.

All of the Adventist Midwest Health hospitals are becoming more efficient to free the time needed to make the extraordinary more possible. New technologies, such as iConnect, an electronic medical record, and PACS, a picture archiving and communication system for medical imaging, are in place or will be by the end of the year. Both systems will advance this goal, David said.

"Time is a precious resource," he said. "These systems will re-define the way we deliver care. We'll enhance quality, be more efficient, and will be able to anticipate the needs of the patient in a way we've never been able to before."

Efficiency is a good way to describe Adventist GlenOaks Hospital's (Glendale Heights, Illinois) new Emergency Department, which opened to the public June 11. The $7 million project tripled the size of the Emergency Department and includes private treatment suites and a unique concept—no waiting room.

Patients are immediately triaged and treated in a private room, with bedside registration and enough room for loved ones to remain with the patient.

"This is a whole new level of service that will enable us to become the best Emergency Department in the area," David said. "It's an amazing transformation."

The hospital is expanding clinical services, offering cardiac catherization and interventional radiology procedures, and excelling in many quality indicators.

"We have the opportunity to be an excellent provider in the Chicagoland market," he said. "Our employees are our ambassadors, and through word of mouth, the kind of care we're delivering here will continue to spread throughout the community."

With more than 100 years of history, Adventist Hinsdale Hospital (Hinsdale, Illinois) is truly a legacy hospital. Through its strategic planning process, the hospital is continuing to focus on its clinical excellence and centers of excellence.

"We need to continue to tell our stories of tertiary excellence," he said. "Our Neuroscience program has ranked in the Top 50 Hospitals in the country for the last three years by U.S. News and World Report. That's just one of our amazing stories here that we need to tell patients within the community."

Adventist La Grange Memorial Hospital (La Grange, Illinois) is more aesthetically beautiful than ever, with the opening of its new patient care center last year. And like Adventist Hinsdale Hospital, a strategic plan is under way to best determine its focus. One potential area: orthopedics. "It's becoming an area of promising growth that we will continue to explore," David said. "The hospital has a wonderful culture, full of giving, inspiring employees."

Chippewa Valley Hospital (Durand, Wisconsin) continues to serve its rural community with a 25-bed critical access hospital and an attached 58-bed skilled care nursing facility licensed for Medicaid and Medicare.

"Chippewa Valley is providing critical access to healthcare within this community," David said. "It's the only hospital in the area and meets an essential community need. As the community grows, we'll be there to support that growth."

As Adventist Midwest Health strives to alleviate pain and suffering in every community it serves, it will continue to focus on its primary strength—its employees.

"Within the heart of every person is compassion and a power to heal," David said. "Before we can change patients' lives, we must be inspired to great things. Once we see ourselves as healers, regardless of what specific job we have within the hospital, we can offer hope through the touch of compassion. This allows us a perfect opportunity to introduce our patients to the ultimate Great Physician—Jesus Christ."

Julie Busch is a public relations specialist at Adventist Midwest Health.