A Higher Level of Care
I
t seems as if the work never ends, but for St. Joseph’s patients, their families, hospital staff and the Syracuse community that is great news! As the last tool is laid down upon completion of our new emergency department, chest pain center, mental health emergency department, data center and nutritional services area, we go right back to work on the final phase of our $265 million hospital expansion. A 110-bed patient tower will provide private rooms that are 35 percent larger than existing semi-private rooms. The size, and the fact that there is only one patient per room, will improve patient safety and also lower the risk of hospital-acquired infections. It also will make it easier for doctors, nurses, family members and patients to get around without bumping into furniture or each other. Family waiting areas also will be enlarged. Kathryn H. Ruscitto For the first time in its modern history, critical patient services such as the operating rooms, postanesthesia care unit, intensive care units and centralized sterile will be grouped in close proximity to each other to provide continuity of care instead of having surgery over here, radiology over there, and the intensive care units in another direction. Our current 12 operating rooms occupied 19,000 square feet when they were designed and built in 1992. The new surgical suite’s 14 operating rooms—along with expanded storage space and a larger, centralized presurgical area—will occupy 40,000 square feet. Space for an additional three operating rooms has been “roughed in” to be completed when the need arises, as it surely will. Each of the patient areas has been designed to provide more daylight, giving patients a proven boost in their ability to heal more quickly. Some have asked whether these new facilities will increase health care costs. Our calculations show that, in the long term, the design criteria, use of higher efficiency mechanical systems, and the ability to improve patient safety and lower infection rates through the use of private patient rooms will save money. There is another element of these improvements that is often overshadowed by our concentration on patient care and the latest in medical technology, and that is the economic power that a flourishing hospital injects into the Syracuse community. Consider the fact that these projects will have provided 600 construction jobs by the time they are finished. More than 80 percent of those jobs will go to local unionized labor. St. Joseph’s will have added 250 new, permanent health care jobs thanks to our expansion—100 jobs by the end of 2012, and an additional 150 jobs between 2013 and 2016. Look around the North Side and you’ll see new businesses coming into the area and others getting a facelift. We intend to improve the viability of these area businesses by providing tree- and shrubbery-lined greenways for better, more attractive access from the hospital. Anyone who has driven along Townsend and McBride streets near the hospital has witnessed the renewal of what was once a blighted residential neighborhood. St. Joseph’s has contributed by working with Housing Visions and Home HeadQuarters to provide new houses and rental properties. Let me put it this way: Where else can you buy a house, have the mortgage guaranteed by St. Joseph’s, gain access to as much as $15,000 in Syracuse Neighborhood Initiative grants, and have your kids go to a city high school, graduate and be able to go to college for free through the “Say Yes” program? And, if you walk to work at the hospital from a home in the neighborhood, you don’t even have to buy gas. There is no doubt we have a lot of work ahead of us, but it’s the kind of work we all can roll up our sleeves and relish. Sincerely,
Kathryn H. Ruscitto President
2 caring Connection
l
St. Joseph’s hospital Health Center
l
winter 2011
l
Contents Ralph & Christina Nappi Emergency Services: Naming Gift to St. Joseph’s Honors Parents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 St. Joseph’s Is Ranked No. 1 for Vascular Surgery in New York State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Up-to-Date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Taking the Road Less Traveled Has Made All the Difference in Her Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Our Foundation Report . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Franciscan Companies Franciscan Companies Aims to Improve Quality of Life for Patients, Reduce Health Care Costs and Help the Bottom Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Tired of Being Tired . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Quality Care That Provides Families a Break . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Embracing Age and Living Home Longer . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Front Cover: The carotid endarterectomy that vascular surgeon Syed Zaman, MD, is performing reflects in his surgical glasses. St. Joseph’s vascular surgery program recently was named no. 1 in New York state by HealthGrades®. The story begins on page 5.
Our Mission
We are passionate healers dedicated to honoring the Sacred in our sisters and brothers.
Our Vision To be world-renowned for passionate patient care and outstanding clinical outcomes.
Our Core Values
In the spirit of good Stewardship, we heal by practicing: Compassion through our kindness, concern and genuine caring; Reverence in honoring the dignity of the human spirit; Excellence by expecting the best of ourselves and others; Integrity by being and speaking the truth.
www.sjhsyr.org