by
Sean Ruck, Contributing Editor | May 11, 2018
From the May 2018 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
HCB News: What draws people to work at MidHudson Regional?
PH: I’m a firm believer that human capital is our greatest asset. So I think it’s the people that make the institution great, not necessarily the bricks and mortar, although we’ve invested a lot on the structure, certainly. When I got here, a little over three years ago, I met people who have been here for 35 and 40 years. That’s the strength of the institution. It’s the fabric that binds the institution together. We have over 1,400 people working in one capacity or another. We have over 350 physicians affiliated with the hospital. There’s no substitution for human capital when dealing with people’s lives.
HCB News: What attracts patients?
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PH: I make a lot of rounds and I’m very active in the community. I think it’s important when you’re running a community hospital to be sensitive to the needs of that community. I quite often see people coming in and recognizing their mothers, fathers, sisters, neighbors… I think it drives home the fact that you’re not just a name and number, but you’re an individual, being cared for as an individual, in a very personalized way. I think that’s the beauty of this institution.
HCB News: Can you give a rough idea of the patient-insurer breakout regarding private insurers or public?
PH: We have private, self-pay and commercial insurance. Medicare and Medicaid, too. We provide care for anyone coming into the emergency room, regardless of ability to pay. We have an active emergency room and we also have a strong commitment to provide behavioral health services to the community. That’s often a forgotten, second-tier focus, but we believe it’s incredibly important to provide both addiction services and behavioral health services.
HCB News: You’ve teamed with the Dutchess County Stabilization Center to battle substance abuse. The opioid epidemic has received a lot of attention in the past few years. Was that the catalyst, and have you seen a serious uptick of that problem in your area?
PH: We have, and we’ve been providing those services in our area for some time. As a matter of fact, today we have an opioid conference going on in our conference center downstairs. We’ve also just dedicated and renamed our long-standing Turning Point Program the Kyle Goldberg Turning Point Program, after a benefactor who’s had substance abuse touch his family. It continues to be an issue we want to address. We have partnered to provide the most appropriate level of care for patients seeking care. We’ve collaborated, with Dutchess County in the stabilization center, to get people the care that they need without having to put a strain on the Emergency Department services, which should be reserved for acutely ill and injured patients. So we’re providing some hospital staff to the county stabilization center, where patients can be seen and evaluated at the appropriate level. We’re lucky that the stabilization center is just down the road from our ER.
