How are we doin'?

My 'round-the-clock meetings with employees were well attended last Wednesday and Thursday.

Understandably, many were not able to attend so I am posting a summary of my slide presentation here.

Community's occupancy has been quite high recently, and I very much appreciate all that employees and physicians are doing to provide patient care and services during these hot summer days.

As you'll see from the meeting material, occupancy is not the only thing that is "up" -- there are improvements in quality, patient satisfaction, renovations, etc.

Our discussions with SUNY Upstate

In late May, I announced that Community was interested in discussing a potential affiliation with SUNY Upstate University Hospital. Yesterday, I reported on the progress we have made in discussions with Upstate.

Here is the text of a memo I sent to members of the Community General family:

On Thursday, June 24, the Community General Hospital board of directors voted to approve a letter of intent that identifies CGH’s desire to negotiate a merger with Upstate University Hospital. I am very pleased to report that the ongoing discussions with University Hospital’s leadership have been productive. The potential benefits of a merger are encouraging for each facility, and more importantly, for the Central New York community.

This afternoon the SUNY Board of Trustees approved a resolution to support SUNY Upstate Medical University’s acquisition of Community General Hospital. As such, Community General Hospital would partner with Upstate University Hospital and expand Upstate Medical University’s clinical presence in the Syracuse area. The approval of the resolution today demonstrates SUNY’s commitment to improving the health care resources in the Syracuse area. CGH’s strategic plan to become part of a larger health system took a significant step forward because of the action by the SUNY trustees.

CGH and Upstate have drafted a vision and set of principles for the proposed relationship. Key among these is respect for the voluntary medical staff at CGH. These principles were reviewed at the semi-annual meeting of the CGH medical staff on June 12, 2010.

Planning committees related to finance, communications, and operations are currently being established with representatives from Upstate and CGH, while medical staff representatives are expected to begin discussions soon regarding clinical service improvements. In addition, Upstate has retained PricewaterhouseCoopers to develop a business plan for the proposed merged entity.

There are many parts to any new relationship, and our potential affiliation with Upstate is no different. A tremendous amount of progress has been made in a short period of time, and representatives from both institutions are working efficiently, but carefully, to establish the most comprehensive health care system for the community at large.

I will continue to keep the CGH family updated as additional details become available in the coming weeks and months. I thank you for your continued hard work and dedication to CGH and the patients we serve.

This year it was Bill's Tourney

Last week -- the 26th anniversary of the Community General Foundation Pro-Am Golf Tournament -- was held in memory of Bill Towsley.

Until his death on March 10, Bill was the Business Manager of IBEW Local Union #43. He was also a member of the Foundation Board and a long-time friend of Community General Hospital.

More than 200 people attended the Pro-Am on June 18 at the Shenandoah Golf Club at the Turning Stone Resort under picture-perfect skies.

Bill's son Ken played in the IBEW #43 foursome, and all his children attended the award ceremonies at the end of play. They are Ken (with Jen), Billie (with Sarah), Tracy (with Tate), and Jennifer (with Jeremy). It was a wonderful and emotional end to a great day.

That's Don Morgan in the photo, at right. He is the Business Manger of IBEW Local Union #43, and with him are NECA Manager Marilyn Oppedisano and Pat Costello, Assistant Business Manager/ President of the Local.

This year's Pro-Am was supported by more than 90 local and national companies. It is Central New York's only charitable pro-am style tournament. Special thanks go to the Central New York PGA and its executive Alan Seamans for all the help and support in putting together this annual event.

Since its inception the Community General Foundation Pro-Am has raised over $2.2 million in support of Community General Hospital. Greg Cohen, senior vice president of EBS-RMSCO, Inc., and co-chair of the 2010 Golf Committee, announced that this year's Pro-Am was the most successful yet, raising some $170,000. He said this was the result of "tremendous generosity" from the sponsors. My thanks to Greg and to Jim Aiello, who also co-chaired the Golf Committee.

In the closing ceremonies, Greg officially announced the Pro-Am's new name: The Towsley Pro-Am to Benefit the Community General Foundation. Under Bill's leadership, Local #43 donated more than $80,000 to Pro-Am over the past nine years.

Bill passed away on March 10 after a courageous battle with cancer. He discussed the illness with me a number of times. Bill made no secret of the battle he was in, and he was as tough, as straightforward, and as honest in facing cancer as he was in his life as a labor leader.

I told Bill I admired his stoicism about the illness, and I allowed that "it must be tough for you sometimes, Bill."

"Sure it is," he said. "Sometimes you wake up in the middle of the night. You can't help but think about things. But what are you going to do? You've got to face this thing and get on with your life."

On the day he died, a reporter called to ask my recollections of Bill. I told her stories about how I met him and how Bill and the IBEW supported a number of charities. At one point I described Bill as applying "gentle pressure" as he fought to make sure that firms using union labor were included in the competitive bidding process for construction jobs.

"You're the first person I've heard use the word 'gentle' in the same sentence as Bill Towsley," said the reporter.

I knew Bill as someone unapologetic about his union interests, one who was practical and forthright in pursuing his goals, one who was interested in the community, and one who stood by his friends.

At Bill's calling hours, I ran into a prominent elected official coming out of the Edward J. Ryan Funeral Home as I joined the hundreds-long waiting line going in. "We lost a good man," I said.

"He was a good one alright," said the official, "but he didn't hesitate to yell at me."

"Oh, he could yell at me too," I said. "But he was smart, he was a straight shooter, and he had a big heart."

I couldn't be prouder that the Pro-Am is now named for Bill and that in its first year the Towsley Tourney topped previous records for the Community General Foundation. I'd like to acknowledge and thank the sponsors of the 2010 Pro-Am, including:

Presenting Sponsor
IBEW Local 43/ NECA

Course Sponsor
Pepsi

Cart Sponsors
Syracuse Orthopedic Specialists
Welch Allyn

Pro Sponsor
Crouse Radiology Associates

Lunch Sponsors
Alliance Bank
Bond, Schoeneck & King PLLC
Buffalo Hospital Supply
Burns Bros Contractors
Carrier Corporation
Empower FCU
Fust Charles Chambers
Honeywell, Inc.
Key Bank
M.S. Kennedy Corporation
Mackenzie Hughes, LLP
Practice Resource
Rural Metro
Upstate Emergency Medicine

Remembering Bev Lippert

Kristin Schofield, Community's Director of Volunteer Services, sent the following remembrance of Bev Lippert, who died unexpectedly yesterday:

Our volunteers and staff are deeply saddened by the loss of our volunteer Beverly Lippert. Bev was killed in a car accident yesterday morning, June 21.

Beverly was a long time employee and retiree of CGH. She loved to tell stories of how she was the employee who ordered all of the first supplies for the Nursery when we first opened. She made all the decisions what to purchase and where to put it. If you walk to the cafeteria and see the photo from the 60’s of a nurse tending to a newborn baby you will see Bev at her finest, doing what she loved, clad in her nursing whites and her cap. She was a very dedicated nurse who cared for several current staff members when they had babies (as well as some staff members who were the babies themselves).

After retirement, Bev continued at CGH as a volunteer, Auxilian and was a current Auxiliary board member. Many of you may recognize Bev as Mimi’s handler. Mimi was her toy poodle that, for years, she brought to the nursing floors to visit patients. Bev also gave many hours as a volunteer at the Diagnostic Desk on Thursday mornings. As of June 17, the last day she volunteered with us, she had given over 4,800 hours to volunteer service.

Calling hours will be tomorrow at Buranich Funeral Home in Camillus from 4 – 7pm and the funeral will be held Thursday at 10 am in the Fairmount Community Church.
Bev did not have any immediate family members but made a lot of friends CGH in the 47 years she was associated with us and considered us her family. She will be missed and remembered fondly. Please keep her in your thoughts.

Thank you, Kristin, for remembering Bev and her part in the CGH family. Bev was a true caring professional.


You can read the obituary in today's Post-Standard.

A broader look at affiliation

On May 19, I sent the following announcement to Community General family:

Yesterday, the CGH board of directors decided it was in the best interests of the community to examine more than one option for hospital affiliation. Accordingly, the board did not proceed to the next step of the merger planning process with Crouse Hospital. CGH remains interested in continuing strategic planning with Crouse, but not on an exclusive basis. Therefore, the board exercised its right to dissolve the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), which required exclusive joint planning.

Upstate University Hospital has recently provided CGH with an alternative strategic proposal, which is well-developed and comprehensive. The CGH board believes it is in the best interests of the community to examine all options when considering the community’s long-term needs for health care quality, service and access to care.

As details of this become clearer, I will, of course, provide additional information to the CGH family about these important issues.

We have much to be proud of - our medical staff, our employees, our facilities and the support of the community-at-large. We have demonstrated excellence in many areas. We continue to plan the best way to improve upon these assets as we prepare for the many changes to come in health care delivery, technology and finance.

I thank you for your continued hard work and dedication to CGH.

If you missed it . . .

Several employees have asked for copies of the presentation I gave at 'round-the-clock employee meetings earlier this month.

Thanks to brainshark, I am able to do so here. Click on the presentation, below, to see the slides and hear my narration.

Appreciation day

Yesterday Community saluted its employees, physicians, volunteers, and associates with an Appreciation Day picnic in the cafeteria.

Buffet servings were free for all shifts, and management topped off the meal by serving ice cream sundaes.

Employees received a Community General Hospital coffee mug as a token of appreciation.

The annual festivity acknowledges and thanks health care workers for their 24/ 7 service to patients and community. Thank you!

Our employee meetings

As I do from time to time, I held ’round-the clock meetings for employees on May 6. Naturally, a lot of the discussion focused on the impact of the federal health care reform legislation as it affects hospitals, as well as on the status of Community General Hospital's merger discussions with Crouse Hospital.

Health care reform legislation

I summarized the effects of the health care reform legislation – admittedly, at a very high level – on consumers, hospitals, and other organizations. For consumers, health care coverage will become more available, and an estimated 30 million individuals could be added to insurance rolls. Individuals will not be excluded from purchasing health insurance because of pre-existing health conditions, nor will there be any lifetime caps on what insurance pays for care and treatment. Adult children, up to the age of 26, will be able to have coverage under their parents’ insurance plans. This information has been generally well-covered in the news media.

I also talked about the impact of health care reform legislation on hospitals, specifically about the $196 billion reduction in Medicare and Medicaid payments to hospitals over the next ten years. There will be new taxes on medical devices and on brand-name pharmaceuticals ($31 billion over ten years), as well as the new taxes on health insurance coverage itself ($57 billion during the period). These are examples of increased costs hospitals will have to pay for the goods and services they buy.

The hospital association has translated the $196 billion nationwide reduction into the impact on each hospital in New York State. Because of the new legislation, the four hospitals in Syracuse, NY, will receive $424 million less from Medicare and Medicaid over ten years. These are huge numbers, and they are hard to imagine in the current context.

These reductions in revenue are expected to be offset to some extent by revenue from individuals who will have health coverage, thanks to the legislation. It is very unlikely, however, that the revenue from the newly insured will come close to offsetting the reduced hospital payments that are forecast.

Overall the health care reform law will be a transformative force affecting the way health care is provided in our society.

Our merger talks

In this context I discussed the merger talks currently underway between Community General and Crouse Hospitals. I compared the forces acting on Community (such as, higher state taxes, the needs of physicians and medical groups, and pension costs) with some of the forces affecting Central New York generally (such as, flat population growth, an aging population, and Medicaid cutbacks). Recognizing these forces and anticipating the impact of federal health reform legislation, last January Community and Crouse entered an agreement to plan a merger, if feasible.

Moody’s, the financial analysis company, recently predicted that, as a result of federal legislation, non-for-profit hospitals will find it more difficult to borrow funds and that more hospitals will look for opportunities to consolidate.

Community and Crouse are, in fact, considering the advantages of creating a larger hospital that operates two campuses. The advantages could include the better ability to work with physicians, potentially better access to capital, more efficiency, and the ability to avoid duplicate investments. In interviews with consultants earlier this year, physicians from both hospitals suggested various ideas, and the consultants have been considering these. The consultants are getting close to a recommendation for both hospitals to consider.

Assuming both hospital boards adopt a structure recommended by the consultants, there will still be a number of steps remaining before the merger process is done. These include implementation planning with clinicians, filing a Hart Scott Rodino document with the Federal Trade Commission, and preparing a Certificate of Need (CON) application for New York State. In addition, both hospitals would have to complete “due diligence,” a process in which each hospital examines the other’s business in detail, considering such things as financial performance, business contracts, tax issues, pension obligations, property ownership, etc. The time frame for these activities could be another year or so.

Our financial performance

I also reviewed Community's financial performance through the first quarter of 2010.

I was pleased to report that through March, Community is operating in the black and on-budget (see the chart below). This is significantly better financial performance than we experienced in 2009 in the first quarter.

Patient satisfaction

I discussed patient satisfaction and showed how Community's most recent HCAHPS scores – as self-reported by Medicare patients – have improved in every category.

The HCAHPS survey measures the percentage of Medicare patients who report that nurses and doctors “always” communicate well, that their pain is “always” well-controlled, and that their rooms are “always” well-cleaned. Community does well in comparison with other Syracuse hospitals – we have the highest scores in three of ten categories and the second highest scores in another five categories. And . . . Community's HCAHPS scores improved in the most recent 12-month period (see the chart, below).

Improvements to come

I talked about improvements being made to patient rooms on several units. The sixth floor renovation (orthopedics) has been completed, and room improvements are underway on Three West. Furthermore, we have begun to update rooms on Four West and, when finished in late summer, the patients and staff from Two West will relocate to Four West to take advantage of the updated and larger rooms. Following that, we will make improvements to the GYN rooms on Two East.

The new health information exchange

Community will become the first hospital in Syracuse this year to link to the health information exchange (HIE) being developed by the Health Advancement Collaborative of Central New York (HAC-CNY).

The HIE will initially link all four Syracuse hospitals, through the Internet, with five primary care physician groups, representing several hundred physicians. By next year doctors and hospitals on this fledgling network will be able to exchange patient-specific data with the consent of the patients themselves. As more physician practices join the exchange, HAC-CNY will link to other networks through the State Health Information Network of New York (SHIN-NY). The idea is to make individual patient information readily available to any of that individual’s caregivers. Naturally, there are demanding security and patient privacy requirements for this to function.

Employees had a number of questions and suggestions during the meetings, and I appreciated the opportunity to speak with so many of you.

Our nurses: pride in professionalism

Community celebrates Nurse’s Week, starting today.

Festivities throughout the week acknowledge and thank our Nursing Division, consider the history of professional nursing, and honor our dedicated professionals and support staff.

Mon May 3 Florence Nightingale Birthday Celebration

Tue May 4 Nursing Thank You Celebration

Wed May 5 Nurses’ Day Celebration

Thu May 6 Nursing Awards Presentations

Fri May 7 Ancillary Departments Thank You Celebration

Congratulations, nurses, and thank you!

Green thanks!

Staff members from Community General Hospital participated in a grounds clean-up on Earth Day, April 22.

The volunteers helped pick up debris from the 42-acre campus, following the winter months.

This was the fourth annual Earth Day clean-up. Many thanks to the green volunteers for their big help!