Annual Meeting Highlights Northwest Hospital Foundation and UPMC Northwest
Members of the Northwest Hospital Foundation Corporation gathered for their annual meeting on Tuesday, October 6 where they learned about foundation activities over the past year as well as several UPMC Northwest achievements as well as both local and national health care trends.
In her report to the corporate membership, foundation board chair, Denise Jones, shared the organization’s top strategic goal: to improve awareness and perception of the Northwest Hospital Foundation. Some outcomes already achieved include changing the foundation’s name to the current ‘Northwest Hospital Foundation’; hiring a new executive director, Theresa Edder; developing branding via a new logo, marketing materials, website and social media presence; and establishing a Philanthropy Philosophy (P2) which is the guiding principle for fulfilling grant requests.
Jones added that every year the foundation earmarks funds to assist patients who do not have the resources to pay their hospital expenses and supports community educational programs such as Stroke Awareness Week, Cancer Awareness Week, and Sleep Safe educational materials for the Family Birthing Center. It also provides financial support for the acquisition of medical equipment that provides cutting-edge diagnostic and treatment modalities for patients, the board chair said. She added that continued support for the TCU/Rehab building project completed in 2009 continues with the fifth installment of the $3 million total commitment. The foundation also provided support for the construction of a Healing Garden for TCU and Rehab patients and their families in 2015.
A report by UPMC Northwest president, David Gibbons, highlighted the many achievements and advancements at both UPMC and UPMC Northwest including the following: UPMC is strong financially and has reinvested over $400 million in western Pennsylvania; admissions across all facilities total over 280,000; and the UPMC Health Plan membership is now more than 2.7 million.
David Gibbons highlighted some key statistics about UPMC Northwest:
- 5,065 acute admissions
- 2,711 medical observations
- 7,776 total patient contacts
- 4,914 surgeries
- 30,208 emergency department visits
- 135,919 outpatient visits
He outlined several successful areas of program development including telehealth/ telemedicine (now with 41 active programs); a comprehensive lung program to diagnose and treat the high number of lung cancer cases in our area; a number of state and national accreditations (The Joint Commission Top Performer, The Joint Commission Acute Care and Primary Stroke Center surveys, American Stroke/Heart Association Gold Plus and Target Stroke Elite designations, and PA Department of Health surveys of Behavioral Health and Transitional Care Units).
David Gibbons also gave an overview of the new UPMC Urgent Care center in Franklin that opened in 2014. He shared that within the first six to eight months, the service was operating at their three-year projection, seeing an average of over 30 patients every day.
He also discussed the strategic direction of UPMC Northwest via an enhanced patient care experience, quality and safety initiatives, physician recruitment, staff and program development, capital investment including new fetal monitors, scopes, sterilizers, anesthesia machines and cameras for the operating suite, as well as upgrades in the radiation oncology information system. Gibbons reiterated that all of these initiatives continue to emphasize how UPMC Northwest is making a difference by impacting the community.
Several national trends in health care were shared with the group, such as projected physician shortages, health insurance coverage rates, the increased use of public reporting websites to rate hospitals and physicians, and value based purchasing initiatives. The presentation concluded with the opportunity to pose questions to the UPMC Northwest president, David Gibbons.
A review of Northwest Hospital Foundation’s financial report was presented by McGill Power, Bell and Associates, LLP who declared a clean opinion of the foundation audit for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2014, with work currently under way on the 2015 audit.
