CMO Notes

Matthew Miller, MD
Chief Medical Officer, WCHN

Happy Spring. You know that phrase, “drinking from a fire hose”? It seems apt for all of us these days and no one is turning off the spigot. There’s a lot going on and this issue of DOC-Line highlights important activities to keep you up to date.

• In CEO NOTES John Murphy updates us on our anticipated and now actively planned merger with Norwalk.
• Governor Malloy has plans for major budget cuts affecting us and all hospitals in the State. Read what that means for us -and you- and what you can do about it in the ADVOCACY ALERT.
• Many of our staff have written superlative applications for the CHA JD Thompson Award for clinical excellence through use of data. Congratulations to all participants and may we win! See the list under KUDOS.
• PHO: Bob Langley fills us in on the latest doings with our moves towards clinical integration and being an accountable care organization - ACO - (lower case and upper case!) Read WHAT’S NEW - KEEPING UP.
• We have many of our staff honored in CT Magazine as “Top Docs”- see ABOUT PEOPLE.
• Single license with New Milford: We can report a lot of progress on this front. We have a good team of leaders from both hospitals actively at work on an effective integration of our two medical staffs. We’ll give you a full report in the next issue of DOC-Line.
• Our DOC-Line newsletter: We hope you find this newsletter of value. We want to make it newsworthy, easy to access and more timely. We plan to publish DOC-Line monthly now (no more seasonal editions), with more enhancements coming as well. Stay tuned.

Please take a few minutes to peruse the contents. As always, suggestions for content or improvement are welcome.

In the next issue, we will discuss how health care reform will affect the hospital and your practices - and what we can or should do to prepare.