Town Meeting with Dr. Thier- BWH Bulletin - For and about the People of Brigham and Women's Hospital
Town Meeting with Dr. Thier- BWH Bulletin - For and about the People of Brigham and Women's Hospital
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May 5, 2000
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In This Issue:
Town Meeting with Dr. Thier
Essence of Nursing Award
Construction on Bretholtz Center Begins
BWH Nursing
Pike Notes
Melanoma Monday
Partners President and CEO Sam Thier, MD, met with BWH employees and staff during his annual BWH Town Meeting on May 2 to discuss trends across the Partners system, the status of current initiatives, and questions from the audience. Thier started the meeting with a synopsis of the successes of Partners HealthCare System over the last six years. “Our commitment to providing care to patients from all communities is a responsibility we take very seriously,” he said, noting the number of patients seen at Partners community health centers has nearly quadrupled since the system was created. Thier also noted efficiencies achieved across the system resulting in 20 percent drop in the average cost per patient. In light of reductions in Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements, these efficiencies have been essential to the success of Partners. “We are about to mobilize another BBA relief effort, and we are working now to address the Medicaid issues. The House has already approved a $25 million correction for Medicaid as well as additional funds for the uncompensated care pool and community benefits. The Senate is working out its plan now.” Finally, Dr. Thier updated the audience on progress on clinical and system integration initiatives. A Partners-wide set of Principals of Patient Care has been approved by various decision-making groups throughout the system and is now being implemented, and a system-wide quality improvement agenda is being formed. Other system initiatives include connecting non-acute care to the rest of the care continuum within Partners, developing a strategy for integrating more training between academic programs and community settings, information systems integration, deploying clinical trials system-wide, increasing research collaboration among all Partners institutions, establishing business plans for selected system-wide service lines, and developing a strategy for relationships with community specialists. Dr. Thier and BWH President Jeff Otten then answered questions from the audience on a range of topics. The questions and their answers are listed below. Q: What long-term and short-terms effects has the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care situation had on Partners? A: (ST) HPHC has made it a high priority to get their information systems under control, and that’s important. They also need to maintain their membership levels. If they can realize premium increases to build up their reserves, they should be able to move forward. Q: Could you comment on the future if BI-Deaconess? A: (ST) BI-Deaconess continues to play a significant role in Boston. In addition, as a practical matter, other hospitals in Boston, including MGH and BWH, don’t have sufficient capacity to serve that significant number of additional patients. It is very critical to the whole Boston region that they are stabilized and continue to provide high quality care. Q: Could you talk about the Partners community benefits programs? A: (Tom Glynn) Across the system, not counting what is spent on care for the uninsured and underinsured, we spend about $10 million per year on community benefits programs. On top of that, we subsidize our affiliated health centers with a total of $15 million a year. On Friday, Governor Cellucci will present awards to staff at BWH’s Brookside center for their efforts to prevent domestic violence and care for its victims. So in the public, we are seen as a leader in community benefits. (ST) At a recent meeting of academic health center groups, I was told that around the country the participation of academic medical centers in community health centers was really very poor, particularly in terms of working with what the community wanted versus what the academic health center wanted. I think that we’ve done an excellent job on that score. Our partnerships with community health centers are extensive, and our programs match very closely what the communities tell us are their highest priorities. Q: What can we learn from the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center’s tremendous losses of last year? A: (ST)There were a number of factors at play there, including competing with a very low-cost provider and having only two insurers, both for-profit, in the marketplace. The payors took full advantage of the situation that was created. (JO) Also, Penn wanted to create an integrated delivery system, but they did that by purchasing all their practices. When those practices and the hospitals began to underperform, it directly affected the Penn bottom line. Q: With the unemployment rate so low, about 2.7 percent, what are we doing to recruit new employees and retain current employees? A: (Cheryl Locke) We have reevaluated our recruitment plan to make sure we advertise not just the positions and their benefits, but the organization itself because it is such an incredible place to work. We also look at quality of worklife and leadership effectiveness to retain the great talent that we have. On a continuous basis, we carefully moniter our salaries and benefits to make sure they are competitive in the market, and make adjustments as necessary. We are recruiting online, and we are considering other programs such as an employee referral incentive. Q: Are improvements to the Partners retirement plan under consideration? A: (Dennis Colling) Not at this time. It is important to note that people who were transferred from BWH to the Partners payroll—those in IS, finance, and human resources—also received the benefit when the retirement plan was improved here at BWH. I think we have been slow in communicating this, and we plan to do more this summer. Q: Is there a Partners internet strategy? A: (Sue Schade, CIO) The Partners internet strategy includes strategic and tactical work at all the Partners sites. Here at BWH there is an active web committee currently dealing with many of the operational issues we face and smoothing out some of the fragmentation. In addition, we are looking at potential commercial ventures for Partners internet as well as extending service line outreach within the marketplace. We are right now working with Ernst & Young on a very broad internet strategy that will take us forward and allow us to make use of this very important medium.