Issue link: https://nebusinessmedia.uberflip.com/i/1065164
www.wbjournal.com • Worcester Business Journal • 2 019 Economic Forecast 25 Seeing results W ill opioid crisis be curbed? Opioid deaths in Massachusetts sur- passed 2,000 in 2016 and nearly as many in 2017. In 2018, they were roughly on the same pace, with more than 1,500 deaths in the first nine months of the year. That data from the state Department of Public Health could be seen as either promising – the epidemic may not be getting worse – or discouraging, as efforts by so many at the state, federal and local levels have yet to curb deaths by any significant amount. Either way, 2019 may offer a good clue for whether efforts are working. >> Change at the top of several orga- nizations Saint Vincent Hospital, MetroWest Medical Center, Nashoba Valley Medical Center, UMass Memorial Medical Center all appointed new hospital lead- ers. In January, UMass Memorial Medical Center lost its president, Patrick Muldoon, to retirement. He was replaced on an interim basis by Jeff Smith, who had been the hospital's executive vice president and chief oper- ating officer, and later permanently by Michael Gustafson, who had been the president of Brigham and Women's Faulkner Hospital in Boston. In July, Jeffrey Welch resigned his post as the top executive at Saint Vincent Hospital in Worcester, MetroWest Medical Center in Framingham and other affiliates little more than one year after becoming CEO for parent company Tenet Healthcare's hospitals in Massachusetts and South Carolina. Welch left to over- see Tenet hospitals in the Miami area. At Saint Vincent, Welch was replaced by Interim CEO Ava Jo Collins. The next month, the president of Top health care stories of 2018 Continued on Page 26 2019 will show whether opioid, ACO and staffing initiatives are on the right path H E A LT H C A R E BY GRANT WELKER Worcester Business Journal News Editor And those efforts have been many. Among initiatives cited by the Department of Public Health, the state has put in place first-in-the-nation lim- its on opioid prescribing, created a pre- scription monitoring program and mandated addiction education curricu- lum in medical, dental and social work schools. Will hospitals follow up on staffing changes? When a November ballot question that would have put in place nurse staffing mandates failed, hospital lead- ers said they'd nonetheless work with unions to make changes to improve patient care. In the aftermath of the ballot ques- tion's failure – which the Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association spent $25 million to help defeat – the associa- tion's president and CEO, Steve Walsh, said the question was only the start of a conversation on patient care. "Question 1 forced some difficult and necessary discussions about the future of health care and the future of our workforce going forward," Walsh said. "These are conversations we owe to the voters. Most importantly, these are con- versations we owe to our patients." The Massachusetts Nurses Association, which fought for the new standards, said it will continue fighting for better patient care. Donna Kelly-Williams, the associa- tion president, said hospitals admitted there was a problem with patient care but didn't want to be held accountable with set staffing limits. "We'll wait, along with those patients in harm's way, to see what their pro- posed solution is," Kelly-Williams said. Will ACOs change Medicaid? Early in 2018, the state began a new system of care for Medicaid patients in hopes of having better-coordinated patient care and a way to keep costs down. In Central Massachusetts, Fallon Health and Reliant Medical Group combined to form one of 17 such Massachusetts accountable care organi- zations, or ACOs. Fallon has partnered with Health Collaborative of the Berkshires in Western Massachusetts and Wellforce in Eastern Massachusetts, while Worcester's Kennedy Community Health Center is one of 13 federally qualified health centers to combine under another ACO. Each of these teams, with insurers paired with providers, are given incen- tives to keep costs down, while in some cases, such as with Fallon and Reliant, they already work together in similar ways. Meanwhile, under another new MassHealth feature, a network called the Central Community Health Partnership has been assembled for behavioral health needs consisting of Central Mass. nonprofits Open Sky Community Services, AdCare, LUK Inc., and Venture Community Services. There's also a long-term services and supports team to help those with physi- cal or intellectual disabilities to include Elder Services of Worcester Area and the Center for Living & Working. Many of those agencies already work together, too. The coming year will give ample evidence of whether the ACO system will improve care and rein in costs. Allison Bernier, vice president of the Central Community Health Partnership, said patients are still adjusting to the ACO system. Ava Jo Collins, interim CEO at Saint Vincent Hospital in Worcester, stands at a nurses station. Ava Jo Collins will serve as interim CEO at Saint Vincent Hospital in Worcester until the medical center's parent company, Tenet Healthcare, chooses a permanent CEO. W Juliet L'Esperance, a health navigator at the AIDS Project in Worcester, works to keep diseases from spreading through shared needs, which is one of the problems with opioids.