Leading HMVA’s integration—Steven Lampert, MD, MBA, is the new chief of the Harvard Vanguard’s Division of Medicine at Faulkner Hospital and holds the same appointment at BWH. Since 1998, he also has been chief of the HVMA Department of Cardiology. Earning an MBA from the Boston University School of Management in 1999, he is interested in developing cost-effective medical management programs that improve patient care. Recent achievements include creating a Congestive Heart Failure Disease Management Program, which provides care to more than 400 HVMA patients and is nationally recognized for both clinical excellence and financial performance. As head of HVMA’s medical services at Faulkner and BWH, he plans to improve the care of hospitalized patients by optimizing communication and coordination of care among all members of the health care team.
New BW/F Psychiatry Program—When Jonathan F. Borus, MD, was named the chief of the Department of Psychiatry at Faulkner Hospital last month, he compared the combined psychiatry programs at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Faulkner to a healthy marriage.
Effective January 16, BWH and Faulkner have created a single integrated psychiatry department. “It made sense to combine the two clinical services, which are very complementary,” said Borus, professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School who has headed BWH’s Psychiatry Department since 1990. “Integration promotes the strengths of both sites.”
As always, BWH Psychiatry staff will provide expert psychiatric and substance abuse consultations to BWH physicians caring for medical, surgical and obstetric inpatients at the hospital. They will continue to co-manage the care of medical-surgical patients who also suffer from a psychiatric or substance abuse disorders, as well as patients having difficulty coping with the emotional aspects of serious medical illness. The ambulatory psychiatry service will continue serving patients who receive their medical care at BWH.
However, BWH has no hospital beds for patients with acute psychiatric disorders such as severe depression or psychosis, or substance abuse disorders such as alcoholism or cocaine abuse. For patients with psychiatric disorders, Faulkner has a 14-bed inpatient psychiatry unit, which will expand to 17 beds in mid-February and has the possibility of increasing to 24 by year’s end. It also has a partial hospitalization program providing short-term, step-down care for psychiatric patients still needing intensive follow-up after an acute hospitalization, and an ambulatory day-treatment center for those patients who need longer care to maintain their highest level of functioning, for example, someone with chronic depression or schizophrenia.
In addition, Faulkner has an excellent Addiction Recovery Program, led by Alan Wartenberg, MD, FASAM, FACP, with inpatient, partial hospital and outpatient components for patients suffering from substance abuse disorders. This program fills another former gap at BWH. “Instead of referring BWH patients with substance abuse to other places, we now can send them to ‘ourselves’ at the excellent Faulkner program,” said Borus.
The academic programs of the BWH department will now be shared with Faulkner. Psychiatry residents from the BWH-sponsored Harvard Longwood Psychiatry Residency Training Program, which recently received the award for creativity in psychiatric education from the American College of Psychiatrists, will begin rotating on the Faulkner inpatient psychiatry unit in July. Collaborative research opportunities also are being identified. Borus believes, “This integration will work because it is a ‘win-win’ in every way.”
Communicating with our patients—In January, more than 200,000 patients — those whose primary care doctor is at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and those affiliated with Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates — learned that their hospital care would be integrated between BWH and Faulkner Hospital. Each patient was mailed a brochure and a letter from BWH President Jeffrey Otten and Faulkner President David Trull explaining that primary and secondary hospital care would now be concentrated at Faulkner. This change in medical services constitutes the second major phase of the integration. Phase one culminated in 2,000 surgical cases performed by BWH surgeons at Faulkner and 250 medical patients of BWH primary care physicians admitted to Faulkner last year. Patients who would like more information about Faulkner’s services are encouraged to call Faulkner at (617) 983-7000 or visit its website at www.faulknerhospital.org
Faulkner Infusion Service Offers Convenience—More than 100 infusions involving BW/F patients have occurred at the Faulkner Hospital over the past few months. Both patients and physicians have reported high satisfaction with the Faulkner Infusion Service. Compared to the BWH on-site service, patients and physicians will often find that the wait time for an appointment will be much shorter at Faulkner. With infusion services now offered at the Faulkner campus, BW/F hospitalists provide any immediate care that is required if the Infusion Service staff identify a problem. Additionally, the hospitalists will contact the patient’s attending physician when necessary.
The Faulkner Infusion Service is open Monday through Friday and offers each patient a private space with a television, lavatory and food service. Ample, reasonably priced parking is available near the hospital entrance.
To schedule an infusion at Faulkner Hospital, the patient or his or her physician’s office should call 617-983-7521. The patient’s physician can continue to enter orders into BICS no later than 2 p.m. on the day before the patient is scheduled for the infusion. The Faulkner Infusion nursing staff is able to access BICS to retrieve medication orders.
Physicians using the Faulkner Infusion Service are encouraged to seek Faulkner credentials. Physicians can continue to refer patients to the Faulkner-based Infusion Service during the credentialing process. To get a Faulkner Hospital credentialing packet please contact Janet Razulis at 732-4301.
For clinical questions about the service please contact Hal Churchill, MD at 732-5145.