CEO Notes

John Murphy, MD, President and CEO, WCHN

Here we go again.

Yes, the Governor of Connecticut is looking for more money from hospitals. Talk about politicians who repeat themselves. He’s asking for another $90 million in cuts from vital services, particularly in the mental health arena. And, no matter the logic we try to bring to the State House, he continues to believe that health care can reinvent itself at his command.

Despite the repetition, we will keep the lights on, and the doors open, as we pursue every possible action to bring common sense to the discussion. This includes continuing our legal challenge to the provider tax (on both state and federal levels) that we consider unconstitutional. At the same time, we continue to review every aspect of our operations to find places where we can save without reducing care. But we can't cut our way to success. And we refuse to let the Governor, regardless of his claims, stand between us and the people we serve. We know why we’re here.

That’s why we continue to lead the industry’s transition to value-based care. Over the past few years, we have invested significant resources in providing better care for our patients including helping to establish patient-centered medical homes, hiring care navigators, creating community care teams and embedding social workers in primary care offices, to name a few... We must continue to make these investments in clinical care transformation as we negotiate contracts with payers that allow us to capture the value we are creating. Synchronizing this clinical and financial transformation will protect our future. We will discuss our progress and our plans in more detail at the Medical Staff meetings this spring. In the meantime, check out Rowena Bergman’s update on how the PHO is ready to help. We invite you to join our efforts.

When we meet in the spring, we will also bring you an update on how you will be able to access information you need after we consolidate all our clinical and financial IT systems. Moving all inpatient and outpatient systems and the associated clinical and financial information onto the Cerner platform will make it easier for you to get the information you need no matter where or when.

In the meantime, take a look at how we will introduce the Network’s new brand. As we prepare to tell the market, “We know you well,” we thank you for the vital roles you play. Our promise begins with your relationships with your patients.

Thanks, and talk with you soon,

John

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