Harvard Vanguard channels care to Faulkner- BWH Bulletin - For and about the People of Brigham and Women's Hospital
Harvard Vanguard channels care to Faulkner- BWH Bulletin - For and about the People of Brigham and Women's Hospital
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February 16, 2001
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In This Issue:
BWH launches new Quality Rounds series
Bringing CIMIT and BWH Together
BWH Vital Signs 1st Quarter Stats
BWH Announces March Town Meeting
Most Valuable Pharmacists
Parents In a Pinch
Pike Notes
Nesson Ambulatory Care Center Update
Faulkner Insert
Harvard Vanguard channels care to Faulkner
Leading HVMA’s integration
Communicating with our patients
New BW/F Psychiatry Program
Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Faulkner Hospital have taken another major step in integrating their clinical services. Effective February 1, BWH-affiliated physicians at Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates (HVMA) will provide primary and secondary care at Faulkner Hospital. Obstetrical services as well as tertiary care will continue to be delivered at BWH. “Harvard Vanguard’s presence at Faulkner is the latest of many successful physician-driven initiatives since the two hospitals merged in October 1998,” said Andy Whittemore, MD, chief medical officer at BWH. Examples include increases in routine surgeries performed at Faulkner, expansion of joint centers in orthopedic care, vein care, weight-loss management and asthma, integrated services in psychiatry (see article on back page), and a shared outpatient dialysis unit, due to open in May. The action of HVMA is similar to physician groups based at BWH, who now admit their general medicine patients to Faulkner for routine care for conditions such as pneumonia, asthma and gastrointestinal ailments. “Both hospitals will benefit,” said Margy Hanson, senior vice president of Network Development at BWH. “By shifting about 3,000 patients each year to Faulkner, BWH can serve more patients with complex conditions. And Faulkner, a 130-bed hospital, will immediately increase its average daily medical-surgical patient census from 61 to 78.” The total daily census for all services, including psychiatry, will run about 110, a figure that is expected to rise. Ancillary services, telemetry, and staff including nurses and Emergency Department physicians have been added to support this effort. Heading HVMA’s integration is cardiologist Steven Lampert, MD, MBA, who is working with colleagues to develop a seamless system to route HMVA patients from clinics and emergency departments to the proper hospital. “Our goal is to place the right patient with the right doctor at the right hospital for the right level of care,” he said. Approximately 100 primary care physicians and specialists from eight HVMA clinics are part of the integrated system. They may visit their patients at either hospital or coordinate care with on-site inpatient internists called hospitalists. As the system unfolds, Lampert envisions satisfied patients: “Many already are saying they like Faulkner’s small and congenial community-hospital setting — where all rooms are private and parking is easy — combined with the high-quality practices of academic medicine.”