Skip to contents
In This Issue:
BWH President Betsy Nabel welcomes a full crowd to Bornstein Amphitheater for the Oct. 3 Town Meeting.
BWH's financial future. Employee wellness. Primary care access for employees. Patient safety culture.
These four timely topics were on attendees' minds at BWH's latest Town Meeting, held Oct. 3 in Bornstein Amphitheater. An interactive, open forum hosted by BWH President Betsy Nabel, MD, Town Meeting featured four short presentations on topics voted on ahead of time by BWHers-a format first tried out during last December's participatory Town Meeting-followed by a lively question-and-answer session.
"I want to thank all of you, as you have stood tall this year amid many opportunities and challenges," said Nabel, who welcomed attendees and introduced the topics and speakers. "Town Meeting is a great opportunity for us to engage in conversation, so I also want to thank you for being here."
Mairead Hickey, PhD, RN; Jackie Somerville, PhD, RN; David McCready, MBA, MHA; and Allen Kachalia, MD, JD, discussed BWH's financial future, wellness resources, primary care access and patient safety culture, respectively. Presentation highlights included BWH's many successes and innovations despite budget cuts and NIH sequestration-such as the hospital's second Beacon Award for Excellence, recently presented to Shapiro 9/10 by the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses-as well as the importance of employee access to primary care across BWH, BWFH and Partners HealthCare.
During the question-and-answer session, Earl Strong, of Security, suggested the idea of more actively assisting patients who are visiting the Shapiro Cardiovascular Center.
"I often notice patients coming in through the front door of Shapiro, where there is no front-desk coverage," he said. "There is a sign indicating that patients can call a number for help, but many of these patients are elderly and may have trouble doing that." Strong suggested a courtesy phone that automatically dials the front desk at 75 Francis St. when picked up, as well as an outdoor handicap stop by the shuttle pick-up area, so that cardiac patients can go into Shapiro without having to go to the main hospital entrance first.
Ambulatory Services' Olabisi Animashaun shared her concern about hospital blue cards. Though BWH became a blue card-free zone nearly five years ago-in order to eliminate the frustration patients experienced in having to register for a new card if they forgot theirs at home-Animashaun said she had witnessed patients being asked for their blue card before service.
"I wholeheartedly agree that anyone should be able to go anywhere in this hospital without a blue card from an ambulatory perspective," said Sharon Vitti, MPA, senior vice president of Clinical Services. "I know the issue was addressed by leadership and is something we can work to fix immediately."
If you missed Town Meeting, you can watch the webcast on BWHPikeNotes.org. You can also view the questions and answers on Dr. Nabel's Notes, or email AskDrNabel@partners.org with a question of your own.