Month: December 2015

Baystate Health Announces Changes to Eastern Region Services

WARE, PALMER — A year after adding Wing Memorial Hospital in Palmer to its family of community hospitals, Baystate Health announced it is seeking regulatory approval to integrate what is now known as Baystate Wing Hospital and Baystate Mary Lane Hospital in Ware into a single-license regional hospital network. This change in status will involve a consolidation of all inpatient services to Baystate Wing and begin a transition of the Baystate Mary Lane campus into a regional outpatient services center. The transition process will formally begin in December with applications by Baystate Health to Massachusetts regulatory authorities to consolidate both facilities onto a single license. Pending those approvals, the change is expected to take place in the spring of 2016. “Providing the right care in the right place at the right time is the notion that’s driving our efforts to evolve and succeed for our patients in the era of healthcare reform,” said Dr. Mark Keroack, president and CEO of B aystate Health. “Transitioning inpatient services to a single campus allows us to provide the safest and highest-quality hospital care at a single site.” With 74 beds, Baystate Wing Hospital has the ability, with its existing capacity, to care for patients who are now hospitalized at Baystate Mary Lane, said Dr. Charles Cavagnaro III, president of Baystate Health’s Eastern Region, which includes the Palmer and Ware facilities. “On average, there are fewer than 10 patients being cared for on the inpatient unit at Baystate Mary Lane each day,” he added. “Consolidating the region’s inpatients in one location would be a more efficient use of our limited resources at a time when all healthcare organizations need to receive and deliver the greatest possible value for every healthcare dollar spent.” Particularly following an expansion of Wing’s inpatient units in 2009, adding 40 medical-surgical beds, six ICU beds, and 28 psychiatric beds, the Palmer campus is more than capable of handling additional traffic, Cavagnaro noted. “That’s one of the reasons behind this consolidation. It’s certainly more efficient to keep inpatient care in one location. It also allows us to think about how to transform healthcare to meet the future needs of the region. “Healthcare is moving increasingly away from inpatient care to outpatient care,” he elaborated. “I think everyone is trying to make do with fewer inpatient beds and pushing that care into the outpatient arena. It’s something we want to do — move away from volume-based care to value-based care, how well we’re keeping the population healthy.” That’s why the Baystate Mary Lane campus — where, even now, 80% of visits are outpatient — will remain an important part of the Baystate system, which, like all providers in the age of accountable care, is focusing more on keeping people well and out of the hospital than just treating them when they’re ill, Cavagnaro said. Therefore, Baystate Mary Lane will continue to provide outpatient services for the Ware community, and the region’s primary-care network will not be affected by the inpatient consolidation. “That piece of the business is not changing,” he told HCN. “My feeling is, whatever we’re doing now for patients in this region, we’ll continue to do for the foreseeable future, and we’ll make changes on the basis of what the community needs and what we can sustainably deliver.” The move of inpatient services will lead to a reduction of jobs at Baystate Mary Lane. While Baystate Health is still determining the eventual job impact, the consolidation is expected to affect 25 to 30 full-time positions, including management and front-line employees. The system has a workforce-transition policy that supports employees displaced by these changes in numerous ways, including offering placement into open positions within the organization for which they are qualified, Cavagnaro explained. “We are committed to a transparent process with our team members and our community throughout this period of change,” he said, “and we hope many of the affected employees will find positions within our Eastern Region or the Baystate Health system. We are grateful to all the region’s team members for their dedication and service.” In the meantime, Baystate Health will continue to monitor community needs as it determines the roles its facilities in Palmer and Ware will play. “We have a direction and a pathway forward. We kind of know the ultimate destiny, but in healthcare, it’s always going to be fluid,” Cavagnaro said. “Every year, we have a strategic plan, a community-needs assessment. It’s unfair to say, ‘this is what the future is going to be, and it’s written in stone.’ We do know we need to add more value to healthcare, and we need to keep patients healthy wherever they are, here or in their homes. And we need to do this in a way that adds sustainability and quality.”

United Personnel Ranks 17th Among Women-led Businesses in State

SPRINGFIELD — United Personnel was awarded 17th place out of 100 Top Women-led Business in Massachusetts, as identified by the Commonwealth Institute and Boston Globe Magazine in an awards breakfast held at the Seaport Hotel in Boston, marking the eighth straight year United Personnel was recognized on the list. The rankings represent a wide range of industries, including manufacturing, business services, healthcare, education, human services, and retail. Cumulatively, these 100 women-led companies produce $70 billion in revenue annually and employ 70,000 people in Massachusetts. These nominated companies were selected for revenue, women in leadership board and management roles, diversity among staff, and innovation for 2014. United Personnel’s ingenuity focused on improving recruitment, retention, and performance of contract employees as well as developing additional services to support the human-resources needs of clients. Additionally, United Personnel developed new search strategies to identify strong candidates for full-time hire in this tight labor market. “We are both thrilled and honored to be recognized among such a well-respected group of companies, and hope to continue our growth and innovation in order to deliver great service to our clients and candidates,” said Tricia Canavan, United Personnel president.

Bay Path Awarded Grant for STEM Education

LONGMEADOW — Thanks to a recently awarded grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Bay Path University will undertake a three-year project aimed at increasing the academic success, engagement, and retention of undergraduate women enrolled in bachelor’s-degree programs in biology, forensic science, and cybersecurity, particularly those students from underrepresented groups. The grant, totaling $300,300, will be awarded over a three-year span. The funding provides resources and programmatic support for student tutors and mentors, materials and stipends for student research, student travel, and guest speakers. In addition, funding was allocated for upper-level course redesign and faculty professional development around mathematics. “Providing access and support to women entering careers in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields is one of Bay Path’s highest priorities,” President Carol Leary said. “This grant will help us nurture essential skills critical for future scientists, chemists, and biologists, ultimately increasing the representation of women in these valuable professions.” The project will strengthen STEM curricula at Bay Path, expand peer academic support, and broaden student participation in high-impact practices. These practices include early student research, mentoring by faculty and STEM professionals, academic enrichment, and career exploration through internships and other experiential learning opportunities. Project activities will be coordinated through a new academic center at Bay Path University, called the Center of Excellence for Women in STEM. Through the support provided by NSF, Bay Path faculty will implement and extend recommendations for effective teaching in the biological sciences defined by the Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education Initiative, an initiative of the American Assoc. for the Advancement of Science. This initiative is being further advanced through the work of faculty fellows nationwide as part of the Partnership in Undergraduate Life Science Education (PULSE).

WNEU Ranks Among ‘Best Value’ Colleges

SPRINGFIELD — Western New England University is ranked in the top 3% of colleges and universities among the top 1,275 public and private institutions reviewed in the U.S. by the Economist. The rankings analyzed which institutions offered the best value for the education received. This new ranking formula utilizes data from the national College Scorecard released by the U.S. Department of Education in September 2015, and factors in how much college students are projected to earn after graduating versus what they actually earn. The Economist’s results showed a predicted salary for undergraduates from Western New England University of $47,947, while the reported salary 10 years after enrolling was $55,100. Western New England University over-performed by $7,153 in predicted annual salary. The data is consistent with findings recently published by the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program, a larger and broader study, where Western New England University is ranked in the top 17% of nearly 8,000 college and universities in the U.S. “For students who want to know which colleges are likely to boost their future salaries by the greatest amount, given their qualifications and preferences regarding career and location, we hope these rankings prove helpful,” the Economist noted. “The college rankings are based on a simple, if debatable, premise: the economic value of a university is equal to the gap between how much money its graduates and former students earn, and how much they might have made had they studied elsewhere.”

SBA Massachusetts Announces 2015 Lender Awards

BOSTON — The Massachusetts District Office of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) announced its fiscal year 2015 lender awards. Massachusetts District Director Robert Nelson called 2015 “an amazing SBA year in Massachusetts. It is awesome to recognize the many significant accomplishments of our lenders and small-business resource partners helping to make life-changing impacts here in Massachusetts. Congratulations to the entire Massachusetts small-business team for their continued focus on the small-business economy.” Among the banks with a Western Mass. presence that won awards:
• Easthampton Savings Bank, Q4 Lender of the Quarter;
• Santander Bank, Massachusetts Lender of the Year to Restaurants;
• NUVO Bank and Trust Co., Western Mass. 3rd Party Lender (dollars and volume);
• New England Certified Development Corp., Western Mass. 504 Lender (dollars and volume); and
• Berkshire Bank, Western Mass. 7(a) Lender of the Year (dollars and volume).
In fiscal year 2015, the Massachusetts District Office supported a total of 2,667 loans totaling $657 million through its 7(a) Loan Guaranty Program, Certified Development Company/504 Loan Program, and Microloan Program.