2018 MEDICAL DIRECTORSHIPS AT THE WILLIAM W.

BACKUS HOSPITAL

Nader Bahadory, DO.

Medical Director of the William W. Backus Hospital

“The Patient Comes First”

Medical directors are the physician leaders at the helm of patient care. They help light the path for physicians and advance practice staff to
meet the challenges of medical practice. Medical practice has become an ever-changing, neck straining, fast pace process that needs razor
sharp focus. Physician leaders need to be front and center to navigate through this process. And this task is no longer isolated to the practice
of medicine itself. Leaders must understand the intricacies of medical economics and politics in addition to community social determinants of
health in optimizing delivery of healthcare.

Physician leaders are directing efforts that have proven to make a difference in patient care. I would like to highlight some of their
accomplishments:

[1]1 Drs. Donna Romito and Mohammad Qureshi are actively
leading the process of COPD Care Redesign to decrease
variation in managing COPD, CHF, and pneumonia.
[2]
2 Dr. John Foley, Chief of Cardiology at the William W. Backus
Hospital and East Region Cardiology Director, is supervising
a full spectrum of cardiology services including expanded
services in electrophysiology and vascular surgery.
[3]
3 Dr. Scott Stanat has led the orthopedic team in a very
successful joint replacement program recognized as a Center
of Excellence by The Joint Commission for Total Hip and
Knee Arthroplasty.
[4] The stroke program was certified in 2018 as a Primary
4
Stroke Center by the Joint Commission under Dr. David
Tinklepaugh’s leadership.
[7]
7 Dr. Kyle McClaine, newly appointed as Chief of Community
Services, has already instituted changes with measurable
improvement in emergency services.
[8]
8 A first step in the Surgical Home Project under the
direction of Dr. Paul Pudimat was the pre-admission testing
program. The program was launched in May 2018 and
has successfully reduced care variation in surgical triage.
Surgical patients can be assured optimal preoperative
evaluation based on proven clinical guidelines.
[9]
9 The preventative medicine team is making progress in
understanding social determinants of health in the East
Region. This work will improve healthcare for chronically
ill patients who unavoidably consume a disproportional
amount of our health care dollars.

[5]
5 Dr. Vaibhav Mehendirata introduced state of the art 10 The palliative care team lead by Dr. Thinesh Dahanayake
[10]
endoscopic ultrasound and plans are in process for touches the most vulnerable patients and families, helping
modernizing the endoscopy unit. them to cope with chronic and terminal illness.

[6]
6 Backus was recertified as a Level III trauma center by
the American College of Surgeons under the direction of
Dr. David Coletti. The collaboration between Dr. Richard
Goulding as the ED liaison with the Trauma Director was
recognized as a significant strength for a community hospital
with level III designation.

I am optimistic that together we can transform medicine in our community and I feel privileged to work with the medical directors, physicians
and advance practice staff at Backus Hospital. If we keep our focus that, “The patient comes first”, we will surely achieve this goal. n

FALL 2018 5