Skip to contents
In This Issue:
While 70 Francis St. has been transformed from an empty lot into a gleaming 10-story structure of steel and glass during the past 18 months, dozens of physicians, nurses and administrative staff have been analyzing existing cardiovascular care with an eye towards collocating several service lines beneath the street level on L2.
“We now deliver high-quality, patient-centered cardiovascular care from several independent sites within our main campus, and that can only be enhanced when we bring them together in one location in the cardiovascular service center with shared resources,” Kate Walsh, BWH’s chief operating officer, said.
Currently, a patient who needs services in Electrophysiology (EP) and Stress must travel to two floors. When the Carl J. and Ruth Shapiro Cardiovascular Center opens in spring 2008, patients easily can access services for EP and Stress on L2.
“Planning for this new facility gives us the opportunity to analyze our existing systems and identify potential improvements that will enable us to enhance services to our patients and their families,” said Frederic Resnic, MD, MSc, director of the Cardiac Catheterization Lab. “We will be able to send patients from our cardiovascular clinics to MR in the same day.”
The patient experience has been and continues to be the driving force behind the planning for the Shapiro’s clinical integration. Planning committees that include physicians, front-line nursing staff, technologists and administrators continue to analyze patient flow across departments, divisions and service lines in BWH’s current structure. For example, in order to improve patient care and make the process as efficient as possible for clinical staff, teams are scrutinizing the patient experience of seeking and scheduling a procedure and the patient’s pathway on procedure day from arrival to discharge.
“Our goal is to eliminate increments of time that are of no value to a patient,” said Debra Rogers, director of Clinical Services. “This lengthy and thorough process involves engaging everyone at BWH involved along the way, identifying and prioritizing challenges and developing and implementing plans for improvement.”
With cardiovascular service lines—including outpatient clinics and inpatient family rooms—in one facility, the Shapiro Center affords significant opportunities to improve and streamline the patient and family experience, Rogers said.