DOC-Line

Since 2007 DOC-Line has informed the Medical Staff – both hospital and community based - about important news that affects them.Here is the basic structure:

• Chief Medical Officer Notes
• Chief Operating Officer Notes
• Executive Notes
• Medical Staff Presidents and others
• About People
• Keeping up – What’s New
• Kudos and Awards
• Vox Medicus
• Individual physician’s editorials

DOC-Line employs a format designed for your quick and easy access. We summarize important information and link you to more detail if you want it.

With our new affiliations, DOC-Line stands as an efficient way for Medical Staff members to stay up with what’s going on. We sincerely ask for your feedback on ways we can improve its value to you.

Matt Miller, MD
CMO WCHN
Matthew.miller@wchn.org

CMO Notes

Matthew Miller, MD
Chief Medical Officer, WCHN

Welcome to the year-end 2014 edition of DOC-Line and a special welcome to our Norwalk colleagues.
What’s in this edition:

• Our CEO, John Murphy, has important news about the Value Care Alliance - our new multi-hospital and PHO collaboration.
• You will read updates on all the new facilities around the network.
• New Milford is now officially one license with Danbury and Norwalk is working on bylaws to have more of a network feel.
• We’ve got new leadership and a fresh branding direction in marketing, which I know interests many of you.
• Our PHO shares some important news - acceptance as an Accountable Care Organization.
• And then there’s Ebola with a piece by Dr. Michael Grey... plus a very moving letter from the front lines.
• We’ve largely finalized our strategic plan for fiscal year and there are some very important goals that relate directly to the Medical Staff.

We must get a better handle on the readmission rate situation -it does not reflect well at all on our ability to manage the health of our population when 10-15% of our patients get readmitted within 30 days of hospitalization! Improvement is imperative as we move from a volume based to a value based organization.

We physicians must continue to address those costs of health care that we control. To be specific, we have to reduce unnecessary variations in clinical care that don’t enhance quality. We’ve done a lot of work on the inpatient side in recent years, with certain lab tests, imaging, blood utilization, telemetry, and multiple evidence based guidelines. But there are more opportunities wherever we have major variations that aren’t a reflection of differences in the patients. Quality is always rule number one, but better standardization around care and an acknowledgement that more is not always better will improve the value of the care we deliver.

Even though we are now a network of 3 hospitals, we won’t continue to attract the high quality Medical Staff we have today without strengthening our commitment to Medical Education and Research. We plan a good deal of effort to support and expand our work on both, in ways that benefit you, but also involve you depending on your personal interests.

Finally, here’s your chance to speak out. Be on the lookout for a Medical Staff Satisfaction Survey which you can expect to see in your email box shortly. The Senior Leadership and administration wants and needs to know if we are supporting you and your patients well. How can we do better? What do you need from us? What should we expect from you? And……how can we communicate better with you? To that end, there will be some specific questions about DOC-Line.

Thanks…..and Happy Holidays

Matt