Letter from the Chief Medical Officer
Dear Colleagues:
In recent years, Brigham and Women’s Hospital has enjoyed a steady growth in patient volume thanks to our dedication to excellent patient care in conjunction with our ability to add beds. We have been fortunate to expand our footprint along Francis Street and maximize our ambulatory services with 850 Boylston St., Brookline, our community centers in Jamaica Plain and our successful relationship with Faulkner Hospital.
However, we are approaching our physical plant limits in the Longwood Medical Area with the construction of the Carl J. and Ruth Shapiro Cardiovascular Center. That’s one of the driving reasons behind our network development plan and our efforts to improve existing relationships with our cadre of referring physicians and forge new ones. But our primary driver in this ongoing effort is our right care in the right place philosophy.
BWH is the right place for complex medical cases that require the best care only available in an academic medical center. But more and more, patients are demanding secondary care closer to their communities, and this trend is especially true in suburban Boston communities. By extending our reach westward in a new relationship with Milford Hospital and southward with South Shore Hospital and Cape Cod Hospital, we aim to make sure the capable physicians who practice there come to rely on us as their first option for tertiary care. We also can extend our services, resources and expertise to these community settings and enhance the quality of care.
Our network development plan ensures we will continue to receive the patients who require the most complex care in our Centers of Excellence: Cancer with our partners at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; Cardiovascular; Neurosciences; Orthopedics and Arthritis; and Women’s Health.
In addition to our existing and growing relationships with the health care organizations in Milford and Weymouth and on Cape Cod, our business development teams continue to refine and adapt our network plan. Whether we’re striving to increase and improve our referral process or investing jointly in a new facility or expanded resources, we’re thoroughly analyzing each opportunity and making careful, deliberative decisions based on our philosophy of delivering the right care in the right place.