Spring/Summer 2018 A publication for supporters and friends of New England Baptist Hospital The Future of the Baptist Way Donor Report 2017 Special Issue Also in this issue: Events @ NEBH Highlights of recent and upcoming philanthropy events Gift Spotlight Strengthening the Fellowship Program Fiscal Year 2017 Donor Listings A Family Affair NEBH Trustee Jeffrey Libert’s $3 million gift to establish the Libert Family Spine Institute strengthens the future for New England Baptist Hospital—and promises improved therapeutic options for back pain sufferers. 1 Recent NEBH Awards and Recognition Dear Friends, We are pleased to present New England Baptist ® Guardian of Excellence Award Hospital’s Spring/Summer 2018 issue of Advances, For the tenth year in a row, NEBH has been awarded the prestigious which includes our fiscal year 2017 donor rolls. Press Ganey Guardian of Excellence Award—the only hospital in New 2017 was a busy and inspiring year; we were thrilled England to receive this honor for ten consecutive to have raised nearly $6 million in philanthropic years. The national award recognizes exceptional hospitals that sustain the highest level of support—the most raised in any non-campaign fiscal year in the hospital’s performance, ranking in the 95th percentile or history. We are deeply grateful to each of our individual, corporate, and greater in patient satisfaction for at least three foundation donors for their unwavering commitment to this hospital and to consecutive years. our patients. ★★★★★ Five-Star Hospital Centers for Medicare and for Quality We hit the ground running in 2018, inspired and motivated by exciting changes Medicaid Services The Centers for at New England Baptist Hospital. As you may have heard, the Baptist is Five-Star Rated Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) created a five-star “Hospital Compare” in the midst of a transformation. NEBH has been called upon, as the only rating tool to help patients understand and specialty provider, to participate in the formation of a new health care system compare quality data. NEBH is the only hospital incorporating Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Lahey Health, Mount in Massachusetts to receive the top rating of five stars in both 2016 and 2017 as an overall Auburn Hospital, and Anna Jaques Hospital. This strategic merger will form rating and also received four stars for patient the second-largest health care system in the Commonwealth, and will provide survey results. care for more than a million patients regionally—dramatically expanding the U.S. News & World Report Ranks Baptist’s reach into new geographic areas to bring our unique approach to NEBH Nationally for Orthopedics musculoskeletal care to many more people. Indeed, this opportunity will allow NEBH has been recognized as one NEBH to fulfill its vision of becoming the premier provider of musculoskeletal of the best hospitals in the country for Orthopedics in 2017–18 by U.S. care regionally and in the United States. News & World Report. The annual U.S. News Best Hospitals rankings, now in their Over the coming months and years, strategic philanthropic investments will 28th year, recognize hospitals that excel in treating strengthen the hospital as it enters the new system, while keeping NEBH patients. NEBH also received the top rating of “High Performing” for both hip and knee replacement, nimble and poised to capitalize on future opportunities, and will preserve which is given to hospitals that exceed expected critical elements of our culture and practice. By enhancing selected priority standards of care. programs, such as the Spine Center and the newly formed Libert Family Spine Joint Commission Institute, featured in our cover story, NEBH will accelerate its ability to provide In May 2018, NEBH achieved leading-edge musculoskeletal care and ensure its place in greater Boston certification as a national and in the hearts and minds of patients and their physicians who rely on and center for Advanced Hip and Knee Surgery by the believe in the Baptist as their orthopedic hospital. Joint Commission, one of very few hospitals in the country to achieve this certification. The We are strengthened by our philanthropic success in 2017 and energized Joint Commission, an independent, non-profit by the opportunities that lie ahead, and we hope you are, too. Our grateful organization, accredits and certifies health care organizations across the U.S. patients, philanthropic supporters, and partners will ensure a bright future for NEBH. We thank you for your steadfast support and look forward to sharing Walmart, one of the nation’s more in the months ahead. Walmart largest employers, has selected New England Baptist Hospital as a center of excellence for Walmart employees needing I hope you enjoy this issue of our newsletter. Thank you again for all you do for hip and knee replacement procedures. Walmart New England Baptist Hospital. employees throughout the country can now choose to travel to Boston to undergo their surgery at Sincerely, NEBH, receiving added benefits for travel and waived copays and deductibles. Pictured on cover: Jeffrey Libert and spouse Mardee Brown (center) pictured with their children Morgan Herman and grandchildren: Elizabeth Clark Sterner and Dan Sterner and their children Calvin and George; Vice President, Philanthropy Anderson and Jessica Libert and their children Heston and Andie. A Family Affair NEBH Trustee Jeffrey For Jeffrey Libert, a real estate developer, frequent injuries and chronic back pain that Libert’s $3 million gift grateful New England Baptist Hospital resulted in five back surgeries and one knee patient, and NEBH Trustee from Cambridge, surgery. In addition, despite hard work at to establish the Libert back pain was part of everyday life. As physical therapy and in the gym, his healing Family Spine Institute a former competitive tennis player (who and recovery timelines are far longer than was team captain and regionally ranked normal, which is typical with Ehlers-Danlos strengthens the future as a player at Amherst College), he battled syndrome, and he was also diagnosed with for New England chronic back pain and repeat injuries that arthritis early in life, which is a common Baptist Hospital—and took far longer than expected to heal. complication of the disorder. promises improved “People said, ‘This is normal; kids get “I’ve had to struggle with musculoskeletal therapeutic options for sidelined because of injury.’ But I just kept issues for most of my life, and the Baptist getting injured—it felt like I was the most has helped me manage and live well despite back pain sufferers. injured guy I knew,” he says. Jeffrey turned them,” Jeffrey says. “This hospital has also to NEBH after unsuccessful surgeries helped my brother, my mother, my daughter, elsewhere and has been relying on NEBH for and my son, and I am deeply grateful.” musculoskeletal care ever since. “Finally, in my 50s, my physician, along with doctors at Jeffrey says his family members’ and his own NEBH, said, ‘I think there’s something else lifelong issues with back pain and the expert going on with you.’” care he receives at New England Baptist inspired him to make gifts totaling more And there was. Jeffrey was diagnosed with than $5 million to support research and Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, an inherited education programs focused on the spine, genetic disorder that affects the connective including the family’s most recent $3 million tissues, particularly the joints. gift to establish the Libert Family Spine Institute. For Jeffrey, this diagnosis connected the dots to make sense of his lifelong struggles with “I think it’s a little bit selfish to invest philanthropically in something that affects you, and I was thinking seriously about giving this gift anonymously because that’s our family’s culture. But I felt it was important to make this gift in my family’s name in the hope that future generations will support ongoing research at the new Institute,” says Jeffrey. “I wanted to help create something that would keep people from suffering like I have. The Libert Family Spine Institute is going to be something that my family will eventually benefit from, too. It’s really heart-breaking to see people with back pain; it can really sideline you for a large portion of your life and keep you from doing the things you want to do. I am excited to be part of an effort to change this.” NEBH Trustee and grateful patient Jeffrey Libert’s $3 million gift will establish the Libert Family Spine Institute. Continued on page 4 3 A Family Affair Continued from page 3 New insights into back pain Too few patients have their pain resolved after physical therapy or surgery, Dr. Rainville explains, and too many Over the last several decades, NEBH has established its patients have difficulty navigating what can often be a reputation as a premier center for patients suffering from complex system of health care. “Additionally, too few back pain. With exceptional spine surgeons, physiatrists, primary care physicians are sufficiently trained in the second and physical therapists, NEBH has produced revolutionary most common patient complaint—back pain—to offer a approaches to caring for the spine, including novel non- treatment path for their patients,” he says. surgical treatment based in physical therapy; surgical techniques; and rehabilitation protocols. Each year, New The Libert Family Spine Institute will advance clinical, England Baptist Hospital successfully cares for thousands of educational, and research initiatives with a goal of enhancing patients suffering from both acute and chronic back pain. outcomes for patients with spine disorders. “Clinicians in our Spine Center have improved outcomes for Priorities of the new institute will include a clinical and patients with chronic back pain and disability, but because educational program for primary care providers, training the spine is so complex, we can and must do better,” says them to effectively serve as the first line of defense when a James Rainville, MD, Chief of Physical Medicine and patient presents with back pain, and clinical research aimed Rehabilitation.