I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Dr. Michael Wiemann, president of St. John Providence Hospital, who I have known for some time. My conversation with him reminded me of why Providence continues to have such success in the local healthcare market.

Simply put it is truly a proactive organization focused on patient care and services. As you walk in to the main entrance, flat screen monitors greet you with information about a convenient app for patients and family members to learn more about Providence’s services. Everyone who works there goes out of their way to be friendly and helpful.

The campus is always brimming with energy and activity. There is a genuine level of enjoyment that employees, physicians and volunteers display in coming to work every day. And that starts with Dr. Weimann’s down-to-earth personality.

No wonder Providence has won several healthcare awards and recently earned a prestigious “A” grade from the Leapfrog Group. The Leapfrog Hospital Survey is the gold standard for comparing hospitals’ performance on the national standards of safety, quality, and efficiency, which are most relevant to consumers and purchasers of care.

But Providence also cares about its immediate community. Dr. Weimann is always quick to ask about DDA activities and any new investments. Providence certainly has a profound impact on the DDA’s success. It represents the largest influx of new investments into the DDA in the last three years. It has more than 21,000 admissions and 67,000 visitors to the Emergency Department each year. Several thousand people work, intern or volunteer at the Southfield campus.

So the impact of Providence is far greater than the DDA. It is just as significant to the City of Southfield as a whole. Its 1,400 physicians live all over Metro Detroit, from Southfield to the far-reaching suburbs. The hospital is contributing to one of the largest concentrations of healthcare professionals in the Midwest, many of whom play significant roles in the renowned medical teaching institutions in Southeastern Michigan.

We are fortunate at the DDA to have a partner like St. John Providence – but in reality, the entire city benefits. So if you haven’t been to Providence recently, I encourage you to stop in and check it out. Chances are you will be amazed at the vibrancy it brings to Southfield.

Promoting the Southfield DDA today has changed over the last few years. There are new ways to use technology to promote what we have to offer, and stakeholders are receiving their information from more sources that ever before.

So we’re changing along with the expectations of developers and investors who may be interested in commercial properties within our district. One of those changes is greater and more immediate access to information about the DDA – the ability to view images of properties, and a wealth of additional reference information.

With that in mind we’re happy to introduce our brand-new website, which offers you more insight into our available commercial and residential properties, more insight into our partners and board and the ability to provide more frequent news updates. In addition, our new website also is “dynamic” in nature, allowing you to conveniently view our web pages on mobile devices, such as tablets and smart phones.

I encourage you to take a look through our new website and learn about our properties, activities and partners. There are many links that allow you to easily get additional information, and an ability to sign up for our free quarterly email updates.

Obviously our URL has stayed the same – www.southfielddda.com. I invite you to take a look at the rest of the website and welcome your comments and suggestions. We are always looking for events and activities occurring in the district as well to help populate our calendar. Any and all feedback is appreciated.