Hartford Business Journal

8 The Greater Hartford Health Care Resource Guide • 2016 – 2017 Committed to Delivering Healthcare the Way it Should Be PMS 676 PMS 2139 65k Over 250 Multispecialty Providers in 28 Convenient Locations Delivering a better healthcare experience by building enduring relationships and focusing on all your needs. Formerly Connecticut Multispecialty Group & Grove Hill Medical Centers www.starlingphysicians.com • (860) 258-3470 Comprehensive care across 25 specialties Advanced Spine & Pain Care Allergy/Immunology Cardiology Dermatology Ear, Nose & Throat Endocrinology Gastroenterology Geriatric Care Hematology / Oncology Hospital Medicine Infectious Disease Internal Medicine Nephrology Neurology Obstetrics & Gynecology Ophthalmology Orthopaedic Surgery & Sports Medicine Pediatrics Physiatry / Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation Podiatry Pulmonology & Critical Care Rheumatology Sleep Medicine Surgery Urology throughout the hospital at least thrice weekly. Griffin's locked psychiatric unit also includes an open environment between patients and staff and features like a large saltwater fish tank. "It's always been thought that you can't create a heal- ing environment in that kind of unit with those kinds of patients — that was the last piece of conventional wis- dom that we took great pride in challenging," Charmel said. "It reduces their stress, they need less medication, they have faster recovery." Aside from the physical, Griffin is committed to an open medical records policy and has bedside tablets for patients to access their records and pose questions. There are no posted visitation hours and visitors can come and go 24/7, including in the ICU, which was designed with a family and visitor corridor outside it with bathrooms, showers and sleeping quarters. Food is key, too. "We really recognize the value of food and nutrition in healing and we see hospitalization as a teachable moment," Charmel said of helping people, for example, with chronic diseases learn better eating habits. The food is so good, it attracts diners from outside the hospital. HARTFORD HEALTHCARE The patient-centered focus requires a cultural com- mitment and a cultural change – and it has to happen, said Hartford HealthCare's Cardon. "That's probably the biggest thing we've got to tackle to make sure it's on everybody's radar screen all the time," he said. "We've moved away from thinking (of ) ourselves as a hospital company and really as a health- care delivery system." That system involves myriad parts Hartford HealthCare is working to improve and to embed what it sees as a holistic and comprehensive approach to the patient experience, which begins with staff, Cardon said. It's tapping the assistance of healthcare consulting firm Press Ganey and also has hired a chief experience officer as part of the effort. At Hartford HealthCare's Patient Experience Showcase earlier this year, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Jeffrey Flaks said patient satis- faction scores needed to improve and improving patient experience would be the system's top priority. Hartford HealthCare's patient-centered focus has included taking steps to improve patient access to its sys- tem, Cardon said. For its employed medical group, that includes hours convenient to patients and seeing them within 24 hours of a call. Also important is the support built around patients, he said. Hartford HealthCare's Integrated Care Partners has a care-management team that comprises 24 nurses, social workers and pharmacists who work with the system's primary- care physicians to engage patients who are at home and not able to get in for care or need help manag - ing their conditions. It's early, but that outreach is producing savings, including reducing unnecessary and avoid- able utilization of services, he said. Other patient-focused initiatives include helping patients schedule appointments with specialists. Hartford HealthCare also has embedded a behavioral-health social worker in 12 of its primary-care practices, "so that they're there when a patient comes in and has an issue, acute depression, something else that requires a warm handoff," he said. "It's no longer a referral out to that behavioral-health specialist, but it's a walk down the hall and an introduction." Other patient-focused efforts include co-locating ser- vices in one area. The new Hartford Healthcare Cancer Institute at The Hospital of Central Connecticut that opened last year in New Britain was designed, too, with a patient-centered focus, including treatment rooms overlooking healing gardens, warm colors, a massive stone fireplace and more. Also important, Cardon said, is getting Hartford HealthCare into one electronic health record so provid- ers have a patient's history at their fingertips. ST. FRANCIS HOSPITAL AND MEDICAL CENTER St. Francis' Rodis said hospitals have long focused on outcomes like patients not dying or getting infections. Those are rare events and it should be a given they won't Janine Fonfara (left) a behavioral health social worker at the Backus Colchester Family Health Center, meets with (left to right) Ila Sabino; Victoria Samolis, administrative manager at the Backus CONNCARE practice in Colchester; and Jennifer Ferrand. Representatives from throughout Hartford HealthCare have collaborated to integrate behavioral health staff at health centers throughout the system. Dr. James Cardon, CEO of Integrated Care Partners and chief clinical integration officer at Hartford HealthCare.

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