Cooley Dickinson Conducts 122nd Annual Organizational Business Meeting

NORTHAMPTON — Cooley Dickinson Hospital’s 122nd annual meeting of its board of trustees on Oct. 14 was marked by awards, milestones, and discussions about the organization’s future.

The William E. Dwyer Distinguished Service Awards are given each year at the annual meeting to outstanding individuals whose service on behalf of Cooley Dickinson exemplifies loyalty, leadership, and dedication to improving the health of the community. Dwyer award recipients were Donald Frizzle and Dr. Peter Siersma.

Frizzle, a retired Amherst Regional Public School superintendent, has volunteered for 10 years for CDH, logging more than 1,800 hours. He is a greeter at the hospital’s main entrance. In addition to his work as a volunteer, Frizzle has held auxiliary leadership roles such as treasurer, vice president, and president. He was the auxiliary’s first male president, serving a two-year term from 2005 through 2007.

Siersma, a board-certified internal medicine physician, has worked in Williamsburg since 1985. He was lauded for his service to the Cooley Dickinson organization, including its medical staff, board of trustees, employees, and patients.

He has served as both vice president and president of the medical staff. He has also served as the medical director at Calvin Coolidge Nursing Home and the Northampton Rehabilitation & Nursing Center. Recently, Siersma was named a trustee of the Massachusetts Hospital Assoc. Of Siersma’s contribution to Cooley Dickinson, Board Chairman Eric Berkowitz said, “when I think of what a physician represents, I think of Peter Siersma.”

Nominated by his peers, Sam Blasiak, a senior benefits specialist in the Human Resources department, was awarded Cooley Dickinson’s annual BECOME award, which is presented to a staff member who models the behaviors that have been identified as Cooley Dickinson’s organizational values.

In a state-of-the-hospital presentation to more than 100 attendees, Craig N. Melin, president and CEO, highlighted the themes of quality, patient satisfaction, employee and physician satisfaction, finance, and growth. He emphasized the hospital’s commitment to quality, noting that delivering quality patient care is “the organization’s most important work.”

He also spoke to the organization’s mission: to become a model community hospital by delivering on exceptional standards for quality and safety, developing cutting-edge improvement knowledge, and teaching other community hospitals how to improve based on Cooley Dickinson’s best practices.

Among the Cooley Dickinson highlights discussed were:

Receipt of the 2007 Betsy Lehman Patient Safety Award for implementing initiatives that, over time, eliminated hospital-associated infections such as central-line bloodstream infections and ventilator-associated pneumonia;

expansion of the clinical Microsystems model of patient care to 15 teams. The Microsystems approach ensures that patient care is delivered by the frontline staff. “The people in the suits are not the experts,” Melin said. “We work with our staff who are the experts and who can improve processes at the bedside that lead to better quality care”;

Cardiac Rehab Department certification by the American Assoc. of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation. CDH is one of only two hospitals in Western Mass. and only seven in the state to earn this certification;

Development of the SMART TRACK electronic board to allow family members to track a patient’s progress through all phases of the surgical process;

Completion of the Caring for the Future Campaign, a $12.3 million campaign that funded the new North Building and Kittredge Surgery Center;

Implementation of new surgical services including the da Vinci S Surgical System for general surgery, prostate, and gynecological surgery; minimally invasive joint replacement surgery; adding midwifery services; expanding imaging services to feature PET/CT and breast MRI; and expanding orthopedic and rehabilitation programs targeting spine and joint care as well as sports medicine.

Melin also shared more somber news. “We need to face harsh realities,” he said. “While there are hundreds of milestones to celebrate, we also need to look ahead. It is critical that I put those realities in front of you.”

Specifically, Melin spoke of a realignment of the organization, during which a number of positions will be eliminated. “Staff have been aware of this announcement since early October. Between then and now, our employees and medical staff are continuing to work to identify possible solutions to improve the organization’s financial status and minimize the impact on staff. This is in keeping with our belief that frontline staff are in a position to identify how to improve work processes using the tools of Microsystems.”

Touching on the economic situation that is seizing state and local hospitals, Melin explained that Cooley Dickinson’s financial performance was on track for the first two quarters of the fiscal year which began Oct. 1, 2007. While outpatient volume for the third and fourth quarters of fiscal 2008 continued to increase in keeping with the budget, inpatient volume was flat, reducing the hospital’s operating margin and mirroring the statewide trend.

Melin added that “continuation of the negative impact of the national economy on CDH would seriously compromise Cooley Dickinson’s finances in the next fiscal year unless serious measures are undertaken early in the new fiscal year.”

Still, he reassured attendees that Cooley Dickinson will preserve its financial health in order to meet the health care needs of the community for the long term.

“We continue to examine ways to balance our finances while providing the level of quality care that has received recognition in Massachusetts and throughout the nation. These are uncomfortable steps to take, but by acting now we will be able to secure our future role in providing the high level of quality and caring that is serving as a model for other community hospitals.”