A sense of belonging 2015 Annual Report Charlton Memorial • St. Luke’s • Tobey + A sense of leadership Twenty years ago, the leaders of Health toward our goal of $25 Charlton Memorial, St. Luke’s and million, giving us the confidence Tobey hospitals decided they could to look ahead just as boldly as our better serve their communities founders did two decades ago. together than apart, and a bold Last year was pivotal for Southcoast plan was set into motion. The Health, as important as its founding three hospitals executed a full- year and one of the most important asset merger with a resulting years in its history. In 2015, we organization known as Southcoast capitalized on years of hard Health System. work, strategic investment and a In fiscal year 2016, we saluted those willingness to seize opportunities visionaries who made the bold in order to fulfill our mission assertion that our communities of improving the health and deserved the very best medical well-being of individuals in the care, close to home. We remain communities we serve. guided by those values and Previously, our substantial strategic bolstered by you, our donors, investments in technology, facilities whose unwavering support has and world-class medical personnel enabled us to bring ever-improving stretched our budgets, but last care to our region. In just two years, year we realized the financial gain $15 million has been contributed to that we knew would come. We the Campaign for Southcoast turned a $30 million operating loss in fiscal year 2014 into a $5 million surplus in fiscal year 2015. And, we achieved this financial milestone while continuing to invest strategically and cope with lower reimbursement rates. The financials, however, do not allowing patients to stop taking As we strive to integrate care, we benefit our patients’ optimal health. fully tell the Southcoast story. We blood thinners. Care options such now also have integrated patient We, in turn, ask that you invest in us. have responded to changes in the as these will only increase with information through Epic, our new Your philanthropic support has healthcare environment as they the introduction of the Harold electronic health record system that helped make Southcoast a national were happening, transforming and Virginia Lash Heart and we implemented system-wide last leader in healthcare by enabling Southcoast from a hospital-centric Vascular Center, which we opened fall. Each Southcoast patient now us to continually advance the care system with a focus on illness to a in October 2015 at Charlton has a single, digital health record, we provide. I could not be more healthcare leader that emphasizes Memorial Hospital. It is the future of accessible by every clinician at grateful for your generosity and wellness, with care delivered in advanced cardiac care in our region every point in our system. Patients your faith that Southcoast Health urgent care centers, outpatient — and anywhere. also have access to their record will continue to invest in your surgery centers, the VNA and a Southcoast delivers exceptional through the MyChart patient portal. wellness for decades to come. growing roster of primary care and care at every stage of life. Last year, Southcoast’s continuous advances specialist offices. we cut the ribbon on the new $14 have helped enhance our In 2008, Southcoast employed million Stoico/FIRSTFED Maternity reputation. Our many recognitions 38 physicians. Today, we have Center at St. Luke’s Hospital, include being ranked by Better 318 physicians and 173 advanced where mothers can welcome their Doctor, an independent consumer practice clinicians. In 2012, 60 infants surrounded by family in a health website, as #1 in New Keith A. Hovan percent of our revenue came comforting and restful environment. England and 8th in the nation for President & CEO from inpatient hospital care If a complication arises, we have heart attack care. Healthgrades Southcoast Health System and and 40 percent from outpatient Level II nurseries and specialized also gave us 5 stars for cardiac Southcoast Hospitals Group services. Today, the revenue medical personnel to provide care for five years in a row. picture is the exact opposite. We critical care. As important as 2015 was for have completely transformed our Last December, we opened the Southcoast, I promise you that business model — something that new 120-bed Southcoast Behavioral we will not stop evolving and will take other health systems years Health hospital on Faunce Corner improving. It is in our DNA. Since and even decades to accomplish. Road. This new facility provides our founding, we have grown Every day, we perform miracles sorely needed access to care for to become a nearly $1 billion of advanced procedures and patients with behavioral health economic engine with close to techniques that greatly reduce and secondary addiction care. The 7,500 employees. We are, by far, recovery times and the risk of 30 beds of the Rogers Unit were the largest employer in this region potential complications — and transferred from St. Luke’s to this and the state’s largest employer change lives. We offer minimally- hospital so that all our behavioral headquartered south of Quincy. invasive cardiovascular procedures health patients can benefit from the Our goal was never simply to that are not yet available at many robust programs offered in a joint become bigger, but rather to grow other hospitals in Massachusetts. venture with Acadia Healthcare, strategically in order to deliver the And we are one of only a handful a leading provider of inpatient best standard of care. As a not-for- of hospitals in New England that behavioral health services. profit healthcare system, we belong implant the Watchman Device for to you, our community, and we atrial fibrillation (A-fib) patients, invest only in what we believe will reducing the risk of stroke and 1 “I wonder if all that could have happened if Southcoast is in better operational and she hadn’t been involved,” he said. financial shape than many other health His mother died in 2005, before she could systems. That, in turn, has helped attract A sense see the improvements completed. But top physicians. Bullard carries on her legacy of support for Bullard served as a trustee during a critical + community-based healthcare. A generous period in the system’s history. It was a of legacy donor, he completed a 12-year term as a challenge he relished. “I am a crusty old Southcoast Health trustee in December Yankee, which means I’m completely Peter Bullard thinks of 2015. resistant to change,” he said. “But that’s not the environment that healthcare operates in “There is no more important charity in a today.” his late mother Katherine community than its healthcare institution — because there is no more important He says he feels he learned more from every time he drives issue than one’s health,” he said. “You being a trustee than he contributed, but he have to step up and support it with time is proud of his involvement in hiring Keith past St. Luke’s Hospital. and financial resources.” Hovan as President and CEO in 2008. She co-chaired the St. Luke’s has a special place in Bullard’s “Given all the changes and challenges in heart. The New Bedford lawyer was born healthcare today, success only happens fundraising campaign there, as were his two daughters, his father, when visionary leadership is combined with grandfather and likely his great-grandfather. a keen focus on operational performance,” that supported the $33 A floor is named in honor of his father, Dr. he said. “Keith is both a dynamic visionary John Crapo Bullard, who served in medical and a terrific manager, and that is unusual.” million expansion of the leadership at St. Luke’s until he retired He says the region is blessed to have the in 1996. In 2001, Southcoast established three outstanding Southcoast hospitals, and Emergency Department the Bullard Society for supporters of the Bullard is a man who counts his blessings: hospital who have made a provision in their his family, “terrifically loyal friends” and a that was completed in estate plan to benefit St. Luke’s. rewarding career. “I get to live in a beautiful Bullard also appreciates the hospital’s part of the world with a 12-minute commute 2007. integration into a comprehensive healthcare to work,” he said, “and have access to a top system. He believes his mother, who notch, local healthcare system.” battled cancer, lived years beyond her He encourages everyone to recognize prognosis, in part, because of the care Southcoast’s value in their lives. “It is she received at Southcoast. She could incumbent upon all of us to make sure eliminate the stressful drives to a medical Southcoast is empowered to do what it center in Boston, and “several Southcoast needs to do,” he said. “You really have no oncologists went beyond the call of duty to choice.” care for her,” he said. That excellence is a credit to Southcoast’s executive team, he says. Because they have anticipated, rather than reacted to, the tumultuous changes in healthcare, 2 Southcoast Health 3 “The trustees of the Charlton Charitable Charlton Charitable Trusts. Earle P. Charlton’s Trusts believe that Charlton Memorial portrait hangs in the main lobby near a 2007 Hospital and Southcoast Health provide portrait of Stacey and her father and mother, A sense essential services to the area,” Stacey said. Frances, who are both now deceased. Tapestries that once adorned the home of “My family has strong ties to the hospital Stacey’s great aunt, the late Ruth Charlton + of history and the area, but it is the services and care Mitchell, also a former trustee of the Trust, provided to the South Coast community hang on a hospital wall near the surgery that really matter.