Williamstown Medical Partners with Berkshire Health

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
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Williamstown Medical Associates has sold its offices to Berkshire Health Systems as part of its affiliation with the health network.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Williamstown Medical Associates has entered into an affiliation with Berkshire Health Systems that its physicians hope will give the half-century-old practice more "horsepower" in serving patients and recruiting primary-care doctors.

The agreement includes the sale Monday of the practice's medical building and property at 197 Adams Road for $2.5 million to Berkshire Health System's realty arm BHS Management Services. The offices were built four years ago for about $2 million.

The practice will lease back the space and continue its operations at Northern Berkshire Healthcare's Ambulatory Care Center in North Adams as well.

Dr. Anthony M. Smeglin, president of the associates, said patients should see little or no changes. "Right now, it's business as usual," he said, adding that the transition appears to be going smoothly.

"I think really it's about increasing the horsepower of what we can do in terms of medical care, coordinating across the county, between practices, under the umbrella of Berkshire Health Systems as well as stabilizing and enhancing what we can do at Williamstown Medical Associates," he said.

The changing nature of the national health care delivery system, including the Affordable Care Act, had prompted the group to begin looking at strategic partnerships the last couple years. Berkshire Health Systems was approached some months ago and talks had "accelerated over the last few weeks."

"When we looked at what was happening in 2013, we didn't want our practice to get to the point of a crisis," said Smeglin. Instead, partnering with BHS in this way could keep all the services going through a coordinated transition, and ensure support and stability for the practice's future.

Williamstown Medical serves some 12,000 patients in the area and employs 19 full- and part-time physicians, physician assistants and nurse practitioners, a number the group hopes to increase.

"We definitely hope this affiliation will help us be more successful in recruiting for primary-care providers, which was very difficult," said Smeglin. "We've been trying of years ...



"There's just a shortage nationally. Part of our goal with this affiliation is to increase our recruiting power."

BHS will also aid in enhancing the practice's electronic health record and telecommunications systems and provide greater access to specialized areas of care that had been limited or unavailable to the doctors previously.

According to the practice, "this new affiliation follows many years of collaborative effort between Berkshire Health Systems and North County health-care providers to assure the availability of important services for people in the region." Berkshire Health Systems and Northern Berkshire Healthcare already have partnerships for cardiology and urology services; BHS also provides support to other North County medical practices and WMA has relationships with its nursing facilities in the area.

"The Berkshire Health Systems and Williamstown Medical Associates affiliation is an important step for health care in all of Berkshire County," said Tim Jones, president of Northern Berkshire Healthcare, in a statement. "We are grateful to the Berkshire Health Systems Board of Trustees and BHS President David Phelps for responding to this critical need in Northern Berkshire quickly and comprehensively."

NBH brought Northern Berkshire Family Medicine into its network in 2008, when the primary-care practice nearly dissolved. Smeglin sees more doctors groups taking this route under increasing financial pressures because of reimbursements, regulations and the institution of the Affordable Care Act.

The whole practice infrastructure is changing, he said. "That makes it harder and harder for practices to maintain their complete independence."

"I think a lot of practices are going to need to affiliate or consolidate to try to address the needs of what's going on from the standpoint of patient care, to make sure they can take care of the patients and be sustainable and viable in the long run," said Smeglin. "I think we're going to see more and more of that happening."


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Crosby/Conte Statement of Interest Gets OK From Council

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

Architect Carl Franceschi and Superintendent Joseph Curtis address the City Council on Tuesday.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — With the approval of all necessary bodies, the school district will submit a statement of interest for a combined build on the site of Crosby Elementary School.

The City Council on Tuesday unanimously gave Superintendent Joseph Curtis the green light for the SOI to the Massachusetts School Building Authority by April 12.

"The statement I would make is we should have learned by our mistakes in the past," Mayor Peter Marchetti said.

"Twenty years ago, we could have built a wastewater treatment plant a lot cheaper than we could a couple of years ago and we can wait 10 years and get in line to build a new school or we can start now and, hopefully, when we get into that process and be able to do it cheaper then we can do a decade from now."

The proposal rebuilds Conte Community School and Crosby on the West Street site with shared facilities, as both have outdated campuses, insufficient layouts, and need significant repair. A rough timeline shows a feasibility study in 2026 with design and construction ranging from 2027 to 2028.

Following the SOI, the next step would be a feasibility study to determine the specific needs and parameters of the project, costing about $1.5 million and partially covered by the state. There is a potential for 80 percent reimbursement through the MSBA, who will decide on the project by the end of the year.

Earlier this month, city officials took a tour of both schools — some were shocked at the conditions students are learning in.

Silvio O. Conte Community School, built in 1974, is a 69,500 square foot open-concept facility that was popular in the 1960s and 1970s but the quad classroom layout poses educational and security risks.  John C. Crosby Elementary School, built in 1962, is about 69,800 square feet and was built as a junior high school so several aspects had to be adapted for elementary use.

Ward 6 Councilor Dina Lampiasi said the walkthrough was "striking" at points, particularly at Conte, and had her thinking there was no way she would want her child educated there. She recognized that not everyone has the ability to choose where their child goes to school and "we need to do better."

"The two facilities that we are looking at I think are a great place to start," she said.

"As the Ward 6 councilor, this is where my residents and my students are going to school so selfishly yes, I want to see this project happen but looking at how we are educating Pittsfield students, this is going to give us a big bang for our buck and it's going to help improve the educational experience of a vast group of students in our city."

During the tour, Ward 5 Councilor Patrick Kavey, saw where it could be difficult to pay attention in an open classroom with so much going on and imagined the struggle for students.

Councilor at Large Alisa Costa said, "we cannot afford not to do this" because the city needs schools that people want their children to attend.

"I know that every financial decision we make is tough but we have to figure this out. If the roof on your house were crumbling in, you'd have to figure it out and that's where we're at and we can't afford to wait any longer," she said.

"We can't afford for the sake of the children going to our schools, for the sake of our city that we want to see grow so we have to build a city where people want to go."

Councilor at Large Kathy Amuso, who served on the School Building Needs Commission for about 18 years, pointed out that the panel identified a need to address Conte in 2008.

Curtis addressed questions about the fate of Conte if the build were to happen, explaining that it could be kept as an active space for community use, house the Eagle Academy or the Adult Learning Center, or house the central offices.

School attendance zones are a point of discussion for the entire school district and for this project.

"At one time I think we had 36 school buildings and now we have essentially 12 and then it would go down again but in a thoughtful way," Curtis said.

Currently, eight attendance zones designate where a student will go to elementary school. Part of the vision is to collapse those zones into three with hopes of building a plan that incorporates partner schools in each attendance zone.

"I think that going from eight schools to three would be easier to maintain and I think it would make more sense but in order to get there we will have to build these buildings and we will have to spend money," Kavey said, hoping that the city would receive the 80 percent reimbursement it is vying for.

This plan for West Street, which is subject to change, has the potential to house grades pre-kindergarten to first grade in one school and Grades 2 to 4 in another with both having their own identities and administrations. 

The districtwide vision for middle school students is to divide all students into a grade five and six school and a grade seven and eight school to ensure equity.

"The vagueness of what that looks like is worrisome to some folks that I have talked to," Lampiasi said.

Curtis emphasized that these changes would have to be voted on by the School Committee and include public input.

"We've talked about it conceptually just to illustrate a possible grade span allocation," he said. "No decisions have been made at all by the School Committee, even the grade-span proposals."

School Committee Chair William Cameron said it is civic duty of the committee and council to move forward with the SOI.
 
He explained that when seven of the city's schools were renovated in the late 1990s, the community schools were only 25 years old and Crosby was 35 years old.  The commonwealth did not deem them to be sorely in need of renovation or replacement.
 
"Now 25 years later, Crosby is physically decrepit and an eyesore. It houses students ages three to 11 in a facility meant for use by teenagers,"
 
"Conte and Morningside opened in the mid-1970s. They were built as then state-of-the-art schools featuring large elongated rectangles of open instructional space. Over almost half a century, these physical arrangements have proven to be inadequate for teaching core academic skills effectively to students, many of whom need extra services and a distraction-free environment if they are to realize their full academic potential."
 
He said  the proposal addresses a serious problem in the "economically poorest, most ethnically, culturally, and linguistically diverse area" of the city.
 
Cameron added that these facilities have been deemed unsatisfactory and need to be replaced as part of the project to reimagine how the city can best meet the educational needs of its students.  He said it is the local government's job to move this project forward to ensure that children learn in an environment that is conducive to their thriving academically.
 
"The process of meeting this responsibility needs to begin here tonight," he said.
 
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