Hospital Report Card – Strategic Planning

BMH 2012 Community Report: Strategic Planning, Decision-making and Identification of Health Care Needs.

Brattleboro Memorial Hospital’s strategic plan was created in 2011 and sets goals for Fiscal year 2012. The BMH Board of Directors approved the plan.

Community input into the strategic plan and into identification of health care needs is obtained by:

• A robust Community Health Needs Assessment being conducted by the BMH Department of Community Health & Hospital Education in collaboration with a diverse county wide steering committee of health oriented organizations and with grant support and expertise from the Vermont Department of Health.  The CHNA Steering Committee conducted a key community leader focus group that identified the health needs of 5 different population age groups on May 18, 2012. Key community leaders also completed a survey in which they rank ordered & prioritized community health needs.  BMH is conducting an internet based survey of area residents in May and June, 2012. Pen and paper surveys will be available for those community residents that do not have internet access. The assessment will be completed in the Fall of 2012 and implementation plan thereafter.
• The presence of community members on the Planning Committee.

Other Opportunities for public participation with BMH include:

1. Serving as Corporators –150 community members who comprise the Corporators are invited to the annual meeting of BMH and our parent corporation. Corporators also serve on various Hospital committees including the Planning Committee which oversees the creation and implementation of the strategic plan.
2. Board membership and Board responsibility to represent community interests in decision making. The BMH Board is comprised of 11 voting members, 9 of whom are community residents with no other affiliation to the Hospital.
3. Active involvement of 135 volunteers who assist with many aspects of hospital work and who provide ongoing feedback to hospital managers.
4. Annual public meeting is held specifically for the purpose of gathering input into the Hospital’s strategic plan and into the Hospital services provided and needed. The 2011 meeting was held jointly with the Brattleboro Retreat on September 22, 2011. There were 16 people present including eight members of the public. Senior leaders from both hospitals spoke about their strategic and program plans and solicited public input.
5. BMH actively relies on patient satisfaction surveys which gather extensive feedback on hospital services from inpatients, Emergency Department patients, Rehabilitation Services patients and all other hospital outpatients (radiology, laboratory, oncology, cardio respiratory etc.). We use the scores and patient comments to improve our services.

For more information about public participation events, you may contact Ellen Smith, Executive Director of Development & Community Relations at 802- 257-8485 or esmith@bmhvt.org; BMH Director of Community Education Wendy Cornwell at 802-257-8325 or wcornwell@bmhvt.org; or you may access our main hospital website at www.bmhvt.org and click on Current Events.

Initiatives BMH is undertaking to meet hospital service area needs include:

• Physician recruiting –  BMH is addressing the community’s need for physicians by supporting access to primary care physicians and recruiting doctors in specialties such as Emergency Medicine, ENT and Hospitalist.  Needs have been identified quantitatively in past Community Needs Assessment telephone survey and the focus groups and in a BMH Medical Staff Development Plan. BMH has recruited five new primary care physicians to Brattleboro and one new physician to Putney, VT since June 2010. The new doctors take Medicaid, underinsured and uninsured patients.
• Expanding/Improving Emergency Services –A CON for renovation and expansion of the Emergency Department was approved March 2, 2012. Construction will start in the Fall.
• BMH is continuing to work to improve access to mammography screening. According to the Health Status of Vermonters, 2008, breast cancer screening of women 40+ years (mammogram in the last 2 years) is statistically worse in Windham County than Vermont (68% vs. 77%).
• BMH is actively engaged in the Blue Print for Health Patient Centered Medical Home program. Windham Family Practice, a hospital employed primary care practice was certified in the summer of 2011 and Brattleboro Primary Care received NCQA certification a couple of months later. Our goal is to have all BMH owned primary care practices certified by September, 2013.

Copies of the BMH strategic plan can be obtained by calling or writing Prudence MacKinney, Vice President Physician and Business Development (802) 257-8367, pmackinney@bmhvt.org, 17 Belmont Avenue, Brattleboro, VT 05301.

The capital expenditure plan and depreciation schedule can be obtained by calling or writing Michael Rogers, Vice President of Finance, (802) 257-8279, mrogers@bmhvt.org, 17 Belmont Avenue, Brattleboro, VT 05301.