This past week we reported our fifth consecutive month with positive

October 26, 2015 ~ Vol 15
This past week we reported our fifth consecutive month with
There are still many challenges MMH has to deal with to be
positive financial results. With a great deal of work by all of us
successful on an ongoing basis. The state’s redesign of the MediMMH has begun to turn the corner. Admission volume is up over
caid Delivery system is designed to reduce hospital services to
last year and Emergency Room visits continue to grow at an annuthese individuals. Surrounding hospitals continue to expand which
alized 6% increase over last year. In September and October our
results in some patients leaving our area for medical care MMH has
Surgery volume also improved 2% over last year. At the same
traditionally provided. Physician recruitment continues to be chaltime our Inpatient and Emergency Patient Experience results imlenging. On this front let me address two departures we are dealing
proved substantially.
with now. Dr Janki Shah, Internal Medicine and Dr Joseph
Throughout our most recent Patient Survey results there are a
Gardella, Cardiology, have notified MMH they will be leaving to
lot of hidden gems. Patients rated the thoroughness of our distake positions elsewhere. We are actively recruiting to continue the
charge process and inpractices they have develstruction very favorably
oped and have every inin the last quarter. In the
tention of successfully
Emergency Room the
recruiting candidates this
physicians and nurses are
fall to succeed them.
more highly rated for
As a final note this week
being genuinely interested
I was privileged to accept
in treating the patients’
an award from the St
problem. We are making
Lawrence Seaway Ausimple but important
thority for all the MMH
changes to support imstaff that responded to
provement throughout the
this summer’s St Laurent
organization from new
Cruise ship grounding.
White Boards to renovaOnce again I was remindtion of the ER Triage ared of what makes MMH
ea.
unique - great professionOn the physician
als stepping up to the
front we have a signed
plate to make patients the
SAINT LAWRENCE SEAWAY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION RECOGNIZES THE MMH
agreement
from
Dr
first priority. We have a
TEAM—The Seaway recently recognized MMH for our extraordinary efforts when responding to
Dalkeith Facey who will
lot to be proud of and I
the June 2015 Saint Laurent vessel incident at the Eisenhower Lock. Over a hundred MMH staff
be joining us in December
know our future will be
and physicians responded that evening to help over 20 passengers from the cruise ship. Bob
in General Surgery and
brighter than our past. Let
Wolleben, CEO, presented the plaque from the Seaway to members of the evening staff. Picture
we have taken the initial
me know how we are
from left to right, front row) Lisa Rotonde, HUC, Kim Hughes, Lab/MT, Dr. Nina Maravegias,
steps to provide hospital
Jessica Palmer, RN, Deb Kershner, Medical Imaging/CT, and Brenton LaGrow, ED Assistant;
doing by dropping me a
medicine coverage for
second row: Bob Wolleben, CEO, Jennifer Wyman, RN, Joe Lamb, PA, Tammy Mitchell, RN, ED
note at rwolleben@ masunassigned patients adNursing Director, Donald Burlingame, RN, and Tom Savage, Phlebotomist.
senahospital.org
mitted to the hospital.
available resources to promote quality costeffective outcomes.
They are advocates who help patients
understand their current health status, what
they can do about it and why those treatments are important. Case management requires a strong clinical knowledge base,
familiarity with the always changing insurance world, resource availability for patient’s in the community, and an ability to
assist a patient and family to succeed past
hospitalization.
MMH’s Case Managers are responsible for utilization review
and patient/family care. Utilization review consists of chart reviews- ensuring that a patient is
in the appropriate status can be a
difference in thousands of dollars
being gained or lost. Appeals are
completed weekly by Case Management staff. If an insurance
company denies a patient’s hospitalization, Case Managers are
tasked with the responsibility of
justifying the admission. DisCASE MANAGERS ARE FOCUSED ON IMPROVING THE PATIENT charge planning/patient family
EXPERIENCE– MMH Case Manager Team are (from left to right) services is the other, initial piece,
Tracey Supernault, Performance Improvement Secretary,
of Case Management. Case ManMichelle Putney, RN, Case Manager, Kelly Durant-Adams, RN,
Case Manager, Jackie Matthie, RN, Performance Improvement agement staff meets with each
patient and family to ensure they
Director and Colleen Haggett, RN, Case Manager.
have the tools and support to be
Massena Memorial Hospital’s Case Management Department is made up of three
registered nurses with very different backgrounds and areas of expertise- Michelle
Putney, Kelly Durant-Adams, and Colleen
Haggett. They collaborate in areas of assessment, planning, facilitation, care coordination, evaluation, and advocacy. Finding
options and services to meet our patience
individual and family's comprehensive
health needs through communication and
CEO Bob Wolleben unveiled for members of
the hospital’s Board of Managers a conceptual
drawing of how the hospital would like to redesign
the emergency room to offer more space.
The architectural rendering is a visual of preliminary ideas on the emergency room; proposing
an expansion of our emergency room out the back
door. The drawing shows an addition of about a
4,500-square-foot to the back of the building.
The concept had been worked with in coordination with emergency room staff and would allow
them more treatment space for triage and the less
acutely ill. Mr. Wolleben explained it
would allow us to take the space we
currently have, where we have seven
rooms, and expand our acute ill capacity by, three plus rooms. The architectural drawing shows both the
possible exterior and interior look of
the revamped emergency room.
The architects have met with
MMH’s ED redesign team to include:
Mark Brouillette, Ralene North, Tammy Mitchell, John Beaudoin, Kim
Truax, Dr. Nina Maravegias and Dr.
Andre Bonnet.
“We wanted to give you an idea of what it
might look like. I underscore the word might because we’re still working on how it’s going to
look. This is our first pass on the entrance; it probably won’t end up looking quite like that. But the
interior is probably going to be pretty close to this,
if not identical,” he said.
The cost was still undetermined in the early
stages, according to Mr. Wolleben. “It’s a project
that we’re still working on. We don’t have a price
down yet. We believe it’s going to be somewhere
successful when
they return
home.
As the
liaison
for any
patient
needing
equipment
nurses,
aids, or
therapy at home, case managers utilize their
strong relationships with area Certified
Home Health Agencies, Department of Social Security, Veterans Administration, and
Hospice to name a few.
Like all of our employees here at MMH,
our case managers are faced with the important task of improving our patient's experience and effectively utilizing their various
resources while adhering to our abundant
policies and procedures. For some it may
seem like a daunting task, but if you ask our
Case Managers what their favorite part of
their job is they will tell you that it’s
"assisting with attaining patient recovery
and post discharge success, along with helping the facility succeed in being a quality
organization."
in the neighborhood of $3 to $3.5 million. That’s
very preliminary, and there’s still some work we
have to do in terms of room-by-room design,” he
said.
He said an expansion in the emergency room
was necessary because of the increased traffic.
“This is a pretty exciting project because our emergency room visits are growing, and we cannot
continue to see the number of patients we are seeing in the current space. We have outgrown our
space,” he said.
There is a lot more work to be done and will
share the information as it develops.
There’s a real high priority on getting
this project further defined and getting
it priced out so we can then come to the
full board with the recommendation
and hopefully approval to proceed,” he
said.
Mr. Wolleben said the emergency room
project was one of two the hospital is
looking at; also on the list is improving
their inpatient medical/surgical rooms.
The architects are working on some
renderings for the future.