With the rash of hospital closings, cutbacks and impending mergers, Vassar Bros. Medical Center, part of the Health Quest organization, says it is doing just fine, thank you.
So well, in fact, Chief Executive Officer Dr. Daniel Aronzon asked supporters at a recent “state of Vassar Hospital” breakfast if they thought the hospital had spent too much ”“ nearly $17 million ”“ to make improvements to its Poughkeepsie campus.
The answer? Rousing applause from the audience.
Aronzon pointed to some innovations at the hospital, including bar-coding medications, using Vocera (pendants that nursing staff wear to communicate directly with physicians and pharmacy), and developing its cardio-care wing into what it considers to be the very best in the Hudson Valley. The next area of concentration will be on building up its oncology department in the Dyson Cancer Care Center.
Aronzon said the focus on the 121-year-old medical facility has been to keep up with the “unbelievable growth in the area ”“ why it is growing here where in other places it”™s not?” He attributed Vassar”™s growth to the quality of care and services it offers.
Vassar also is investing heavily in nursing staff, from $3.5 million in 2002 to $6.6 million in 2006. It is cutting back on “rent a nurse,” which, at its high in 2003, was $8.6 million. “We”™re now down to $2.9 million,” Aronzon said.
“You saw the movie ”˜Field of Dreams”™ where Kevin Costner”™s character thought if he built it, they would come,” he said. “But we cannot call ourselves a Center of Excellence unless we live up to the name. We have first-round draft choices when it comes to health care, especially in heart-related disease and in oncology. We are going to win the World Series.”
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Aronzon pointed to Vassar”™s distinction as one of the top 100 hospitals for cardiac care and its placement in the 90th percentile nationally for patient satisfaction, as rated by NYS IPRO.
The hospital has 364 beds and plans to add 150 more by 2013, and eventually convert all rooms into private suites. Aronzon said he is looking forward to the new leadership Michael Weber will bring to the Health Quest organization, which is expected to pull in more than $550 million this year, up nearly 20 percent over 2005.
And what of the recommendation of the Berger Commission calling for St. Francis and Vassar Bros. to go back to sharing certain services, as they did before former state Attorney General Dennis Vacco put a stop to the practice in the 1990s? “We are under strict regulation not to hold conversations with St. Francis,” Weber said, “and nothing is happening in that regard in the foreseeable future.”
Vassar Bros. is part of the Health Quest organization, which includes Northern Dutchess Hospital in Rhinebeck and Putnam Hospital Center in Carmel. All have done extensive renovations to their facilities, particularly their emergency room services. They have a combined total of 597 beds, nearly 30,000 admissions and more than 100,000 visits to their emergency rooms in 2006.
Weber, former CEO of both Northern Dutchess and Putnam, took over the Health Quest presidency last month after the resignation of Adil Ameer.
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