Keeping Up

Executive Notes

1. Report from President of the Danbury Hospital Medical Staff
William V. Begg III, MD FACEP

Medical Staff Integration
Integration of the Danbury Hospital and New Milford Hospital Medical Staffs in 2013 is an ongoing major initiative. Much time has been spent reviewing important issues such as medical staff leadership structure, dues structure, on-call issues, representation on various committees, potential meeting locations, amongst many other important topics relative to our medical staff. The Medical Staff Integration Committee will continue to meet with legal counsel. The new proposed Medical Staff bylaws should be ready for review within a few months.

Physician of the Year:
Congratulations to Magida Award “Physician of the Year” finalists from Danbury Hospital. This year’s finalists include: Michelle Lavallee, MD (Neurology), Robert Bazuro, DO (Emergency Medicine), and Jamie Bruno, MD (Urology). The overall Fairfield County Medical Association Magida Award winner will be chosen in June, 2013.

Legislative Update:
Danbury Hospital Medical Staff Officers have met numerous times with various CT state representatives and senators this spring: Our position on important issues:

Governor Malloy’s 2013 budget: Danbury Hospital Medical Staff opposes any further decrease in the state’s allocation to the hospitals.
H.B. 6687: An Act Concerning Certificate of Merit – DH Med Staff opposes allowing any health care provider to sign a Certificate of Merit in a medical liability action instead of a physician with similar medical background and specialty.
HB. 6158: An Act Concerning Vaccine Distribution – DH Med Staff supports allowing physicians a choice where they obtain their vaccine for pediatric patients

Medical Staff meetings for 2013:

June 6, September 12, November 21
5:30p start time with goal to finish meeting in under an hour
Reception in Robilotti room before and after each General Med Staff meeting

2. Report from President of the New Milford Hospital Medical Staff
Robert Mullen, MD

The New Milford Hospital staff leadership has been meeting with their Danbury Hospital counterparts as members of the WCHN Staff Integration Task Force. This group has had several meetings to consolidate the governance documents of the two medical staffs. The new consolidated bylaws will serve both institutions and are integral for single licensure.

In addition, in April, New Milford Hospital had site visits from both the Joint Commission, as well as the Connecticut Department of Health. The survey results were very positive and reflect the hard work of our entire hospital team.

3. Report from Chief of Staff, New Milford Hospital
Thomas J. Koobatian, MD, Chief of Emergency Medicine

There are two massive undertakings currently in progress at New Milford Hospital.

First is the preparation for conversion from the Meditech IT platform to Soarian. This is a tremendous task that involves every part of the hospital, clinical and non-clinical. For the Medical Staff, the biggest enhancement will be computerized physician order entry and a single electronic resource for all patient data from both Danbury and New Milford Hospitals. It will be like trading-in your old Atari for a brand new Xbox!

The second big undertaking involves the merger of all Danbury and New Milford Hospitals' policies. If we are going to be one hospital with one license, we can only have one set of policies and procedures. As you can imagine there are hundreds of clinical and non-clinical polices at each hospital that must be reconciled. This also includes our Medical Staff By-Laws, as you read in Bill Begg's comments. The work does not finish with the re-writes; dissemination and education on all the new policies must take place as well.

Lastly, the New Milford Hospital Medical Staff came together on April 1st to have an earnest discussion on the services our hospital can and should provide to our community. We all know the changes in medicine that are occurring, and it was great to see the commitment of our Medical Staff to meet these challenges.