Looking south and feeling small
Paul Levy understands why Norwood Hospital is nervous.
On his blog Running a Hospital, the CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center recounts his visit to Foxboro, where the Brigham and Women's/Mass General Health Care Center is being built at Patriot Place, a complex next to Gillette Stadium.
The newest satellite of the Partners Healthcare System offers many of the same medical services found about eight miles north at Norwood Hospital, which is part of the Caritas Christi hospital network. But doctors at the two hospitals are paid different amounts, despite no documented differences in quality of care they provide, Levy says, citing the recent Globe Spotlight series.
"Now, let's acknowledge that MGH and the Brigham are powerful brands," Levy writes. "To the extent patients are influenced by that reputation or other factors to migrate to the PHS facility from Norwood Hospital, the overall health care bill for the state will rise for no documented additional value to those patients or society."
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Elizabeth Cooney is a former
health reporter for the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, where she also was a
business reporter and an editor. Earlier in her career, she edited medical
books and journals at Little, Brown, and worked for Boston magazine.Boston Globe Health and Science staff:
- Gideon Gil, Health and Science Editor
- Ishani Ganguli, Short White Coat blogger
Partners Foxboro is 8.5 miles south of Caritas Norwood.
Note, Caritas Norwood is 8.8 miles south of BIDMC-Needham.
What effect does BIDMC-Needham 40,000 sf expansion have on Norwood?
What effect does Partners Foxboro have on BIDMC-Needham for that matter?
Both Norwood and Needham are full-service hospitals and Foxboro is a large ambulatory center.
I honestly don't know the answers, just asking the questions.
The expansion at BID~Needham has two major components. The first is to expand and redesign the emergency department. The current configuration of the ED is not good, with a lack of privacy and other problems. Also, it is too small for even the current usage, much less projected usage. The second is to add inpatient rooms, reflecting the increased usage of the hospital. Those rooms will all be single rooms. I don't see these changes as affecting Norwood very much, if at all. Doctors who refer to BID~Needham, for the most part, do not refer to Norwood. Needham is not really in the same transportation corridor as Norwood (or Foxboro).
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