Guest Column: NARH Improving Local Health Care
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NORTH ADAMS, Mass.
Though much of the news out of North Adams Regional Hospital these days has been about our business operations and financial restructuring plan, the real focus of our staff has been on continuously improving the quality care we deliver to the community.To that end, there is a great deal of positive news to report. From the leadership and board to the staff level, every member of our team is engaged in the effort. In matters large and small, we are thinking creatively about how to give patients the best possible experience when they find themselves at NARH. It is gratifying to see that these efforts are having an impact.
Our patient satisfaction scores from July through September have been outstanding, particularly in our Critical Care, Ambulatory/Surgical, and Obstetric Units, as well as the Emergency Department. A majority of patients answered "very good" (the top box) on most of the questions about their experience at NARH. But we look carefully at those areas that were less successful and make a concerted effort to address those issues. The work of our Critical Care Unit and our Obstetric Unit was further recognized with Quality Award certificates for ranking in the 99th percentile of all hospitals in the country for overall patient satisfaction. These numerical markers were further supported by recent letters we received from Emergency Department patients, who wrote that the staff were prompt, efficient and compassionate.
As with most hospitals, NARH is accredited by the Joint Commission, a national agency that sets the standard for quality in health care. The Joint Commission was with us for three days, from Oct. 5 to 7, and I am proud to report that we did very well on our triennial review.
The review involves an intense, unannounced examination of all aspects of patient care and hospital operations — from the cleanliness of patient-care areas and the storage of supplies to the way patients are cared for and the following of "best practice" health-care procedures. The surveyors told us afterward that it came through loud and clear that we have been and are focused on quality of care. Perhaps most telling, they said every patient they spoke with was happy with the care we provide, and that patients and family members felt safe and well cared for. They also remarked on the high level of staff morale and their commitment to our patients in every area of the hospital.
In an area like the Northern Berkshires, having easy access to quality care in a number of specialties is critically important to the community. To that end, we consider recruiting physicians to the area a key part of our responsibility to the patients we serve. We rearranged staff responsibilities to allow one individual to focus full time on the effort to add primary care and specialty physicians to our team. We have recently welcomed Dr. Louis Reines, a general and colorectal surgeon; Dr. Veronica DelRiccio, an obstetrician/gynecologist at Northern Berkshire OB/GYN; Dr. David McQuade, a radiologist; Dr. Stephanie Foo, a hospitalist; Rita Willey, a nurse practitioner at Northern Berkshire Family Medicine; Dr. Kenneth Patterson, an emergency medicine physician; and S. Marie Gudz, a nurse midwife at Northern Berkshire OB/GYN. You can read more about them on our website. We know they will be valuable resources to our patients and our community. They join an outstanding medical staff at NARH — doctors whose impressive qualifications are only matched by their dedication to this community.
It is frequently astonishing to me that this terrific work continues to occur even as our board of trustees sees us through the Chapter 11 process. We believe the financial restructuring should be completed early in the new year. The end result is expected to be a lessening of our debt burden, a critical step forward for our system. At the same time, given the challenging economy and the decrease in reimbursements, we will need to continue to operate in a way that focuses on the most valuable and critical services we provide to the community.
For the staff and leadership of Northern Berkshire Healthcare, nothing matters more than continuing to provide our community with services that keep local residents safe and healthy. Our thanks to each of you for your continued support and confidence.
William Frado Jr. is president of Northern Berkshire Healthcare and North Adams Regional Hospital.
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