Hartford Business Journal

22 Hartford Business Journal • June 5, 2017 www.HartfordBusiness.com 14 Hartford Business Journal • June 5, 2017 www.HartfordBusiness.com SPONSORED CONTENT specializes in hospital laundry. The laundry handled 10 million pounds of linen per year over the past 10 years, servicing Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center, Saint Mary's Hospital, Johnson Memorial Hospital, as well as other area hospitals, nursing homes, and clinics "Laundry is not our core business," said Thomas Burke, vice president of operations at Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center. "Trinity Health assisted us with bidding out the job and we are very pleased with the result. This is just the first step. We have a lot of work to do in order to provide the best possible service to our patients and caregivers." The move may save more than $1 million a year for three of Trinity Health Of New England's member hospitals. It will also mark the beginning of a process focused on improving the linen service. "Changing the way we provide linen is just one way we are transforming operations," Burke said. "The money we save will help us put the funds where they are needed most – caring for our patients." Operational excellence focuses on working to leverage existing resources and talent. As an example, the human resources team members are evaluating programs, policies and practices within the region that will enable them to deliver services in a more efficient manner. Wable said the principles of integration and regionalization that guide the team's actions and decisions "are things we all need to embrace." Some integration is already taking place, Wable said. Saint Mary's Hospital will go live with Epic, a common electronic medical record system that is already used at Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center and Johnson Memorial Hospital, on July 1. Mercy Medical Center and its affiliates are expected to be connected to the same platform next year. "Getting our clinician teams and support enterprise using common IT language, tools and systems and—more importantly— communicating with and through a common platform is powerful," said Wable. "Most importantly, the end result will be that our patients will benefit greatly." By implementing a single electronic medical record platform, patients will have a unified patient record that will enable them to travel anywhere and have access to their health records. And, physicians at each Trinity Health Of New England hospital will have access to the same record for each patient – providing valuable information about the conditions and care the patient has received in the past. "We have to learn how to operate in a national system. We have to then have a regional enterprise and to then understand what each local enterprise needs … If we're going to be cost-effective in the future, we don't need to have three or four different layers all doing the exact same thing. We need to streamline our functionality to make it easier for our patients," Wable said. In order to truly achieve its goal of operational excellence, Trinity Health Of New England knows that it will need to make fundamental changes to the way it conducts its business. This will be not only good for its member hospitals, but will ultimately benefit the patients and communities it serves. "Continuing to squeeze more juice from the same lemons will not move us to success," said Wable. "We must accept that success will happen by making fundamental changes in how we operate and that will come through regionalization, consolidation, integration and standardization." ● Photos / J. Fiereck Photography Food and Nutrition Services across Trinity Health Of New England hospitals will benefit from a single-source vendor with the goal of improving safety and efficiency under the watchful eyes of chefs like Production Cook Tameish Hoose. Storeroom Clerk Paulo Linhares is part of the supply chain-storeroom team at Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center. The storeroom team receives 25 pallets daily from its vendors and distributes the items for use throughout the hospital. The purchasing power of Trinity Health enables its regional ministries like Trinity Health Of New England to take advantage of better pricing and standardized products that meet the system's goals of improving patient care.

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