At a time when the healthcare industry as a whole is met with ongoing operational and financial challenges, Milford Regional remains committed to our mission of providing exceptional healthcare services to our community with dignity, compassion and respect. Through our excellence and advancement in patient care delivery, leading performance in quality and patient safety, and our growing team of providers in high-demand specialties, Fiscal Year 2023 bridged a remarkable legacy with an even brighter future.
Quality
Funding Fuels Milford Regional’s Stroke Educational Campaign
As part of a community outreach and education project, Milford Regional’s multidisciplinary Stroke Committee created a three-part “Spot a Stroke” education video series and complementary posters funded by a $10,000 grant. The series, in collaboration with Community Emergency Medical Services and the Milford Fire Department, provided educational tools on how to recognize a stroke, the treatment involved, and the follow-up care.
The videos featured Neurologist Eliezer Sternberg, MD, Emergency Medicine Physician Karen DeFazio, MD, FACEP, and introduced vascular neurologist Adalia Jun-O’Connell, MD, MRMC’s new stroke director. The grant funding allowed MRMC to create these videos, as well as produce Spanish and Portuguese subtitled versions. Videos are posted on Milford Regional’s website at milfordregional.org/spotastroke.
Honor Underscores High-Quality Stroke Care
Milford Regional Medical Center’s multidisciplinary Stroke Committee continued to make strides in performance with a tenth consecutive “Get With The Guidelines-Stroke” Gold Plus Award from the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association.
The “Get With The Guidelines-Stroke” Gold Plus with Target: Type 2 Diabetes Honor Roll award, based on 2022 data, was awarded in Summer 2023 after the Stroke Committee—co-led at the time by Neurologist Eliezer Sternberg, MD, and Emergency Medicine Physician Karen DeFazio, MD, FACEP—implemented several new strategies to improve stroke care at MRMC; such as launching the Code Stroke paging protocol in 2021. The new protocol expedites stroke care upon patients’ arrival to the Emergency Department and upon recognition of acute stroke symptoms with inpatients.
Milford Regional Earns Recognition as Top Teaching Hospital
Milford Regional was recognized as a 2023 top teaching hospital in the nation by the Leapfrog Group, a national watchdog organization focused on healthcare safety and quality. Recognition from the nonprofit organization is one of the most prestigious honors hospitals across the country can earn.
Our hospital was one of only two hospitals in Massachusetts, five in New England and 74 across the country, to receive the coveted top teaching hospital honor from Leapfrog.
Milford Regional serves as a teaching hospital for the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School in Worcester. To qualify for a top distinction from Leapfrog, hospitals must rank highest among peers on the Leapfrog Hospital Survey, which assesses the quality of patient care across many areas of hospital performance including infection rates, practices for safe surgery, maternity care and preventing medication errors.
Milford Regional Earns Another Grade “A” for Patient Safety
For the eleventh consecutive time, Milford Regional received an “A” for Patient Safety from the Leapfrog Group, a distinction recognizing the hospital’s achievements in protecting patients from accidents, injuries, errors and infections.
The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade uses up to 30 national performance measures from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the Leapfrog Hospital Survey and other supplemental data sources. Together, those performance measures produce a single letter grade representing a hospital’s overall performance in keeping patients safe from preventable harm and medical errors.
CMS Bestows Top Ranking to Milford Regional
Milford Regional received a 5-star ranking from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). This ranking is the highest given by CMS and is awarded to only 16 percent of the 3,076 qualifying hospitals. The five-star ranking signifies Milford Regional performed exceptionally well when assessed in the areas of safety of care, timely and effective care, mortality, patient experience and readmission.
Community Votes Milford Regional Top Pick in “Quest for the Best”
As part of 101.3 WMRC-FM “MyFM’s” 2023 “Quest for the Best” contest, Milford Regional won gold for best hospital and best surgery center. Additionally, Milford Regional Physician Group won gold for best medical practice. Thousands of listeners, followers and other area community members cast votes for their favorite local businesses among 11 different categories, including medical.
Milford Regional Named Among Becker’s “Great Community Hospitals”
For the first time, Milford Regional was included among only 153 other hospitals nationally on Becker’s Hospital Review 2023 “Great Community Hospitals” list. As part of its determination of what hospitals to include on its annual list, Becker’s editorial team evaluates performance from outside rankings and ratings organizations. Milford Regional’s strong and consistent consumer/patient-focused rankings from Leapfrog and Healthgrades were among the publication’s rationale for Milford Regional’s inclusion on this distinguished list.
Milford Regional Physician Group Earns Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Accolade
For the twelfth year in a row, MRPG has been named to the Harvard Pilgrim HealthCare Physician Group Honor Roll. The selection is based on clinical performance measured against national quality benchmarks in three domains of clinical care: acute, chronic, and preventive care. Honor Roll practices were named based on performance of 15 measures, such as: appropriate treatment for children with upper respiratory infection, comprehensive diabetes care, and breast cancer screenings. This achievement directly reflects our commitment to providing high-quality care and healthier outcomes for our patients.
Milford Regional Receives Top Grade on Lown Index
Milford Regional received an “A” grade for outstanding social responsibility on the 2023/24 Lown Institute Hospitals Index. Out of more than 3,600 hospitals nationwide, Milford Regional achieved the honor through its strong performance across the metrics of health equity, patient outcomes and value of care. Milford Regional ranked 16 out of 65 hospitals in the state and 407 out of 3,637 hospitals nationally on the social responsibility metric, resulting in its top grade.
The Lown Hospitals Index for Social Responsibility is the only ranking to include metrics of health equity and value of care alongside patient outcomes. In the fourth annual and largest set of rankings to date, the 2023-24 Lown Index evaluates hospitals on more than 50 measures, including novel metrics such as community benefit, racial inclusivity and avoidance of low-value care.
Patient Care
Heart Failure Clinic Opens in Hill Health Center
The Milford Regional Heart Failure Clinic opened on the 4th floor of the Hill Health Center to improve the quality of life of heart failure patients, educate patients about their condition and empower patients with an individualized treatment plan to reduce their readmission risk.
Led by Christina McCarthy, PA-C, the heart failure clinic provides patients a multidisciplinary approach to managing their condition. The team at the clinic works closely with primary care physicians, cardiologists and other specialist to monitor patients for 30 days after hospitalization. Patients are seen in the clinic or via telehealth within one week of discharge from the hospital. Visits are initially scheduled weekly to provide patient education, manage medication and monitor bloodwork, providing patients with rapid access to treatment should symptoms worsen, and avoid a return to the hospital.
Groundbreaking Event Held for Milford Regional in Medway
Construction on Milford Regional’s newest community based-satellite location—Milford Regional in Medway—continues to progress with an expected opening spring 2024.
In June 2023, representatives from Milford Regional Physician Group, Milford Regional Medical Center and Lobisser & Ferreira Construction Corporation, as well as state legislators and Medway town officials, were present for a groundbreaking ceremony at the facility’s location.
The new 22,000 square foot facility is located at 68A Main St. and will include adult and pediatric care; obstetrics and gynecology; urgent care and laboratory and radiology services. The facility aims to provide expanded healthcare services to Medway and neighboring communities.
Best-in-Class Monitors Improve Continuity of Care
Milford Regional began implementing Nihon Kohden monitor technology throughout the year to help standardize patient profiles throughout a patient’s stay.
The Nihon Kohden technology allows staff to send patients to any part of the hospital and retain the same patient profile from start to finish of that patient’s stay. This is achieved by linking telemetry boxes throughout the units.
“We’ve gone from only certain units being able to take cardiac patients to all units being able to take cardiac patients,” said Director of Emergency Services Jessica Kon, MSN, RN, CEN.
The implementation was in a staggered phase launch. The ED and ICU were the first to get the upgrade in May 2023, while other units were scheduled to receive their updates through January 2024. The overall goal is to outfit all units with telemetry capability.
Navigation Technology Guides Treatment
Milford Regional Physician Group’s Ear, Nose & Throat Surgery office became the first location in Massachusetts to adopt the latest in sinus surgery navigation technology over the summer with the Johnson and Johnson TruDi© Navigation System. It’s an upgrade in technology that allows our physicians to operate with increased precision and decreased risk.
Sinusitis, which impacts approximately 30 million adults in the United States annually, is an inflammation of the sinuses, either bacterial or viral, which can result in facial pressure, congestion and thick drainage. Sinusitis navigation technology, which has existed for decades, takes a CT scan of a person’s head and superimposes the image onto the patient during an operation.
“We think this is going to be really beneficial to the community because of how widespread sinusitis occurs in the general population,” said YuShan Lisa Wilson, MD, who uses this new technology to treat sinusitis.
Urogynecologist Recognized for Work with Surgically-implanted Device
Within our Urogynecology department, Diego Illanes, MD, was awarded the InterStim™ Circle of Excellence (COE) Award, which is given only to the country’s top, most experienced implanting physicians.
Illanes offers the sacral neuromodulator implant as a more advanced form of therapy for incontinence, the involuntary loss of bladder and bowel control. It’s a condition that affects millions of people every day and can be disruptive to one’s quality of life if it goes untreated.
The surgically implanted device delivers mild electrical pulses through small wires to the sacral nerves, sending signals to the brain that tell the muscles when to contract, helping to control incontinence. “Medications and other therapies target muscles that control your bladder or bowels, the sacral neuromodulator offers relief by controlling nerve signals that may restore normal bladder and bowel function,” said Illanes.
Milford Regional Now Offers Travel Medicine Services
Milford Regional opened its new Travel Medicine Service, where patients can now prepare themselves for the rigors of their upcoming trip.
Based in the Infectious Diseases department on the third floor at MRMC, the Travel Medicine Service provides counseling, medication, and vaccinations to adults planning foreign travel for school, business, or pleasure. Consultations are by appointment only, four weeks prior to travel.
Immunizations offered include Hepatitis A/B, Measles-Mumps-Rubella, Typhoid, Meningitis, and more. Consultative services offered include country-specific travel advice, education on travel illness and injury prevention, and malaria prevention strategies.
For more information and to schedule an appointment, contact the Travel Medicine Service at 508.902.9751.
New Faces
Medical Leadership Changes
Two new leadership roles were announced among the medical team at Milford Regional. Chief of Gastroenterology Albert A. Crimaldi, MD, PhD was named President of the Medical Staff, and Chief of Neurology Eliezer Sternberg, MD, was named Chair of the Department of Medicine.
Dr. Crimaldi joined Milford Regional in 1987. He served as chairman of the Department of Medicine, site coordinator for the University of Massachusetts Internal Medicine Residency program, and twice has been voted Teacher of the Year by the UMass Internal Medicine residents at Milford Regional.
Dr. Sternberg joined Milford Regional as a neurologist in 2020 and was named chief of the division the following year. He holds other leadership positions within Milford Regional, including co-chair of the Stroke Committee and director of the neurodiagnostic laboratory.
Hospital and Foundation Board Additions
The 2023 Milford Regional Medical Center and Milford Regional Physician Group Board of Trustees slate of officers was announced at the Milford Regional Medical Center’s Annual Meeting of the Corporation in January.
Anthony M. Consigli was named chair. Consigli is the chief executive officer of Consigli Construction, one of the largest general contractors in the northeast and headquartered in Milford. He has served on the Milford Regional Medical Center and Milford Regional Physician Group Board of Trustees since 2019 and on the Milford Regional Healthcare Foundation Board of Trustees from 2004 through 2016.
“I’m very proud to be serving as Board chair,” Consigli said. “Milford Regional is fortunate to have so many valued community members who have supported the hospital since its founding 120 years ago.”
The other Board officers include Vice Chair Brian J. Earley (NPP Development/Kraft Group); Clerk Denise Brookhouse (Koopman Lumber Company); and Treasurer Gordon A. Lewis III (Altman and Company).
Also appointed to the Board of Trustees at the January 2023 meeting were Sandra Clark and Jeffrey Nutting. In addition, Dr. Brooke Littleton-Fitzgerald was appointed to the Milford Regional Healthcare Foundation Board of Trustees.
Milford Regional Welcomes New Physicians
