BW/F Network Development Heads West, South
Brigham and Women’s/Faulkner Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Physician Organization are extending networking efforts with several projects and new collaborations with care providers throughout Eastern Massachusetts.
Building on the success of BW/F’s effective approach of offering patients “the right care in the right place,” BW/F and BWPO have engaged in working relationships of varying degrees with health care organizations in the state’s MetroWest, South Shore and SouthCoast regions as well as Cape Cod.
“Our networking strategy is where our philosophy of care and our business growth plan come together,” said BWPO Chairman Steven Seltzer, who is BWH’s chairman of Radiology. “We’re working with our network collaborators to provide patients with the right care in the right place to create win-win arrangements.”
In November, the Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center celebrated a newly forged relationship with Milford Regional Hospital with a groundbreaking ceremony on a new $25 million cancer center. (See story on page 3.)
BWH joined forces with South Shore Hospital (SSH) in Weymouth for the MASS COMM Trial in concert with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and Harvard Medical School to study outcomes of coronary angioplasty procedures. Also, plans are in place for a new cancer center to be built at SSH, too. These are just two examples of the multi-faceted relationship between SSH and BWH.
BWPO Radiology will have a major presence with Compass Medical Group—which is a PCHI group—as leadership from Gastroenterology, Cardiovascular, Neurology and Surgery are working with Compass to help establish specialty care in their center of excellence, which is under construction along Route 24 in East Bridgewater. “This represents an exciting opportunity to build outstanding programs for patients in the Compass service area,” said Dale Adler, MD, BWH vice chairman of Medicine for Network Development and Strategic Planning.
In addition, BWH Radiology now provides imaging services for Cape Cod Healthcare. (See story in Bulletin)
BW/F’s relationship and partnership with each of these facilities and organizations are unique, and they share the same underlying philosophy of network-building principles. Health care consumers are demanding improved care in their communities, and community-based care providers need access to services available at academic medical centers.
The network development plan relies on BWH’s right-care, right-place philosophy for the five centers of excellence: Cancer care in partnership with DFCI; Cardiovascular; Neurosciences; Orthopedics and Arthritis; and Women’s Health. Through developing relationships, BWH and its community partners will ensure the appropriate technology and resources are available where patients need them most.
“With secondary care being delivered in communities, we are forging these relationships to offer the highest level of follow-up care and disease management services within the community setting and to provide access to tertiary care at our centers of excellence throughout our distributed campus,” said Allen L. Smith, MD, MS, chief medical officer of the BWPO.
The goal is to create a system that allows for patients to pass through BWH and its community partners with seamless transitions that minimize potential fragmentation and interruption. “Whether our patients are coming from Weymouth or Milford or own primary care practices, we owe them and their clinicians complete and seamless access and flow of information across the continuum of care,” Smith said.
BW/F-DF Network Development
- Cancer Center at Milford Regional Medical Center
- Radiation/Oncology Services
- Medical Oncology, Infusion Services
- South Shore Hospital in Weymouth
- On-site Surgical Specialty Services and Surgical residency
- Gynecologic Oncology Services
- Cardiology Directorship for SSH’s new cath lab (currently recruiting)
- New ambulatory care center with cancer focus expected to open in 2008. Will provide:
- Radiation Oncology
- Medical Oncology, Infusion Services (through DFCI)
- Diagnostic Imaging
- Surgical Specialty Care
- COMPASS Medical Center, East Bridgewater
- Radiology professional services (MRI to be offered in new Center of Excellence)
- Surgical specialty professional services
- Exploring opportunities for Gastrointestinal, Neurology and Cardiovascular Medicine services in new Center of Excellence
- Cape Cod Hospital, Hyannis
- Cardiovascular Surgery fellowship
- Radiology professional services