Dear Colleagues:

Last month, I had the opportunity to report to you on our strong financial performance through the first six months of the current year. How we continue to balance the need to sustain and build upon this success with our ongoing commitment to quality patient care will take us to the next level as a professional organization.

Volume growth and capacity issues continue to take center stage as we seek new opportunities to improve costs and address labor challenges. The issue of quality will begin to directly impact our operating performance as outside organizations measure hospitals and physicians on a variety of matrixes as a foundation of directing care.

The challenges moving forward are considerable, but we must continue to find efficiency while innovating to produce strong quality patient care. We must demonstrate the essence of those factors to our payers, including those such as Medicaid, who continue to reimburse us at levels below our costs. We will be working with payers to increase revenue by demonstrating our quality of care and reduction of medical errors.

Attaining a strong operating margin is essential to all of the physicians, researchers and caregivers at BWH, because it will allow us the opportunity to perform exceptional care well into the future.

Sincerely,

Lawrence H. Cohn, MD
Chairman, BWPO