Worcester Business Journal

24 Worcester Business Journal • October 26, 2015 www.wbjournal.com the hospital board of directors, honoring the tradition of the church's relationship. The facility has Catholic leanings still today, such as not offering sterilization surgeries. Union weighs in Labor is an organization's biggest cost. Saint Vincent's nursing workforce is unionized with the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA), and hospital technicians voted this spring to unionize with the local Teamsters union, with which negotiations are ongoing. This could impact costs for Tenet's Northeast region, according to a com- pany filing, but MacLauchlan said he doubts that contract will have a major impact on costs. Nurses, on the other hand, say they've enjoyed a cordial relationship in con- tract negotiations with Saint Vincent, especially in recent years. Marlena Pellegrino, co-chair of the MNA bar- gaining unit at Saint Vincent, said it took 14 months to settle the current contract in February, but talks were much more collaborative than they were in the early 2000s when Tenet owned Saint Vincent for the first time. In 2011, the nurses ratified a contract with Vanguard that mandates staffing ratios of no more than one nurse to five patients anywhere in the hospital. ICU limits are capped at one nurse to two patients, as in other Massachusetts hos- pitals. Pellegrino said this allows nurses to take better care of patients, and that's a selling point for Saint Vincent. MNA spokesman David Schildmeier said Saint Vincent is one of the only Massachusetts hospitals to have man- dated staffing ratios set as a contractual obligation. Their profitability despite these ratios is evidence that hospitals can afford to cap patient loads, he said, despite arguments from other hospital leaders that mandated ratios aren't fea- sible. "[Saint Vincent] seem to recognize that they have to work with unionized nurses, and they've negotiated some pretty good agreements with us," Schildmeier said. Some perspective While Saint Vincent thrives, MetroWest Medical Center is digging out of a $6 million loss in fiscal 2014. The hospital, which has campuses in Framingham and Natick, has made progress. According to the state Center for Health Information and Analysis, MetroWest Medical Center turned a profit of $6.9 million in the first six months of fiscal 2015, ending June 30. Tenet spokeswoman Teresa Prego said MetroWest is challenged because it's competing in the crowded Greater Boston market. She said this year's improvement fol- lows the hiring of a new management team, which has focused efforts on expanding the hospital's behavioral health services in Natick, as well as recruiting new surgeons and adding key services. MacLauchlan, of Saint Vincent, said he expects the turnaround to continue. "They've done a really nice job, and when you see next year's data come out, I think you'll see a much different pic- ture," he said. Regarding Saint Vincent's closest competitor, UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, the two hospitals appear to have structures and missions that are different enough to allow for coexistence. But it's not exactly a fair comparison. The cost structure of an academic medical center is much higher than that of a community hospital, or teaching hospital, like Saint Vincent. Another factor that drives up overhead for UMass Memorial is its Level 1 trau- ma center, the only one available in the region. MacLauchlan said Saint Vincent isn't a world away, either. The two hospitals serve a similar demographic, and are deemed disproportionate share hospi- tals, meaning they care for a large num- ber of indigent patients, which can impact the bottom line. "At the end of the day, our payer mixes are probably pretty similar," MacLauchlan said. n Saint V is region's most profitable hospital Bringing healthcare to life. OF OUR PATIENTS RECOMMEND THEIR DOCTORS. 9 OUT OF 10 PATIENT #10, PLEASE CALL US SO WE CAN WORK THIS OUT. reliantmedicalgroup.org 9 out of 10_WBJ 9X11.25.indd 1 9/14/2015 3:40:15 PM >> Continued from Page 11 Who pays Saint Vincent and UMass Memorial? Commercial 35% Commercial 36% State 15% State 25% Federal 39% Federal 44% Saint Vincent Hospital UMass Memorial Medical Center Source: Center for Health Information and Analysis Payer mix breakdown, fiscal 2013

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