Worcester Business Journal

38 Worcester Business Journal | November 4, 2019 | wbjournal.com I N D U S T R I E S H E A L T H C A R E R emaining an independent community hospital doesn't mean going it alone. In fact, partnering with larger providers has been a mech- anism for thriving for small Central Massachusetts hospitals. A significant recent example is Harrington HealthCare, based in Southbridge, moving to outsource its Emergency Department physicians on its Southbridge and Webster campuses to a subsidiary of Boston's prestigious Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. e deal, effective Oct. 1, brought the Harrington gets creative to deal with doctor shortage BY EMILY MICUCCI Special to the Worcester Business Journal $10,000 $20000 $30,000 $40,000 $50,000 '07 '08 '09 '10 '11 '12 '13 '14 '15 '16 '17 '18 Worcester County U.S. Average annual salary Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages Average annual salary in health care and social services Beth Israel name to the most southern reaches of Worcester County, an area battling the physician shortage plaguing the U.S., especially rural areas. Harrington CEO Edward Moore said several Emergency Department doctors resigned at about the same time, for various personal reasons. Filling those vacancies could take years, he said. "It was better approached to try to bring (another) group in than to try to replace those doctors on our own," Moore said, noting Beth Israel already had a hand in Central Mass. health care, providing emergency services at Saint Vincent Hospital in Worcester. e 14 Emergency Department physicians formerly employed by Harrington are now members of the Associated Physicians of Harvard Medical Faculty Physicians, a phy- sicians group owned by Beth Israel. Moore said the group not only employs doctors, but nurse practitioners and physicians assistants, who provide care at Harrington. APHMFP is responsible for manag- ing daily staffing, filling any vacancies due to illness -- something they're equipped to handle, with hundred of doctors to pull from, Moore said. "I find that to be beneficial to us because we don't have the day-to-day headache of managing that," he said. e Beth Israel deal is the largest ar- rangement with an outside provider in Harrington's history, though APHMFP has been providing radiology services at Harrington since 2007. Harrington has other affiliations with UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester and Boston Children's Hospital. With a connection at Saint Vincent Hospital already, Moore said APHMFP felt confident it could recruit doctors to work in Southbridge and Webster, two towns well off the beaten path for doctors that prefer urban living. Rural hospitals like Harrington will continue to struggle to recruit doctors, given a physician shortage in primary care and many specialties, expected to worsen as the population ages. Data published by the Association of American Medical Colleges in April project a doctor shortage between 50,000 and 122,000 in the U.S. by 2032. e South and West face the largest shortages, but all regions come up short when it comes to available doctors, especially in primary and specialty care. "e shortage is right at the top of the list of what keeps people up at night," said Edward Kelley, president & CEO of Milford Regional Medical Center. Like Harrington, Milford Regional found partnerships to strengthen the system as the tides turn in favor of larger healthcare systems. Boston Children's provides newborn and pediatric special- ty care at Milford Regional. An indepen- dent practice staffs Milford Regional's emergency room, while affiliations with Dana Farber for cancer care and UMass Memorial for complex surgeries allow Milford Regional to provide complex care, close to home. "We really want to do basic commu- nity medicine," Kelley said. National Worcester County healthcare healthcare employment Year employment growth growth Annual growth in health care and social services employment 2009 2.55% 1.90% 2010 2.09% 1.76% 2011 1.79% 1.61% 2012 2.69% 1.66% 2013 7.68% 4.19% 2014 2.86% 1.68% 2015 2.86% 2.52% 2016 2.30% 2.74% 2017 3.71% 2.21% 2018 1.63% 1.94% Note: Includes all employees in local, state and federal government added to figures for private establishments. Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages Edward Moore, CEO of Harrington HealthCare FB PHOTO/NATHAN FISKE

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