Letter from the BWPO Chairman
Dear Colleagues:
As the debate around health care cost, quality and access continues to garner local and national attention, I am proud to be a member of the Brigham and Women’s Physicians Organization, which is comprised of so many heroes who lead the way in delivering top quality care. One area where I know our leadership in care is second to none is in our two licensed community health centers, Southern Jamaica Plain and Brookside. Physicians are part of a multidisciplinary team, working hand in hand with administrators and nursing directors to ensure patients receive the best care.
At the Southern Jamaica Plain Health Center, Michael Lambert, MD, has been leading our efforts for nearly 30 years. When he started there, he was the only internist. The leadership at SJP, including executive director Tom Kieffer, MPH, and nursing director Regina Harvey, MHA, RN, has since built a practice that has nine internists. For more than a year, Michael has been testing certain elements of the patient-centered medical home in his own practice; he’s now expanding it to the rest of the center. Like Michael, pediatrician James Bastian, MD, has committed his career to community health and caring for children and their families where they live. Both Michael and James continue to serve as dynamic teachers and mentors to physicians just beginning their careers.
At the Brookside Community Health Center, Robert Hartley, MD, works closely with executive director Paula McNichols, nursing director Beth Scanlan, NP, and a team of talented clinicians to ensure patients receive the best care. Barbara Gottlieb, MD, for instance, practices internal medicine and women’s health with an unyielding commitment to her patients, is active with the Boston Public Health Commission and is a principal investigator at the Harvard School of Public Health. Whether she is availing herself to collaborate with other care agencies in the community or advocating for improved access at the city or state level, Barbara ensures that we put our patients and their families first. In Bob, the medical director for Brookside, we see someone who has transitioned smoothly to community-based primary care from academic medicine at BWH and private consulting. Bob focuses on systems improvements, has initiated a patient-centered medical home pilot and intuitively understands how valuable an integrated model of care can be for all staff involved, and how enriching it is for our patients.
Southern Jamaica Plain and Brookside community health centers each see more than 10,000 patients per year, and combined patient visits are approaching 120,000 annually. Thanks to the leadership teams and their dedicated staff, our health centers are model programs in delivering personalized, culturally appropriate care to our patients and serve as valued members of our broader community.
Sincerely,
Robert Barbieri, MD
Chairman, BWPO