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Forum: North Berkshire Needs Focus on Health, Not Just Health Care
By Rebecca Dravis, iberkshires Staff
03:18AM / Monday, December 15, 2014
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Cathleen McElligott, director of the Division of Primary Care and Health Access for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health's Office of Rural Health, talks about the 'Triple Aim' concept of health care.

NBCC Executive Director Alan Bashevkin leads the conversation.

Ruth Blodgett, senior vice president of BHS, said focus is on what services will create a healthy community.

State Rep. Gailanne Cariddi addresses the crowd of about 75.

Community members and representatives from local agencies attended the forum.

Bashevkin, Joe Manning and Cathleen McElligott of the DPH.


Dr. Mark Pettus from Berkshire Medical Center talks about the role we all need to play in our own lives to create our own health.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The most beneficial way of adding to the ongoing discussion about health care in Northern Berkshire County is to subtract the word "care."

A group of panelists who spoke at the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition's monthly forum on Friday agreed that in order to help the North County community thrive, the emphasis needs to be on its residents' health, not just its health care system.

"We would like to talk about health care in the context of health," NBCC Executive Director Alan Bashevkin said in introducing the forum, titled "The Changing Paradigm of Healthcare in Northern Berkshire.

"It's one of many we need to have as our landscape changes over time."

And how the landscape has already changed, from the abrupt closure of North Adams Regional Hospital to the gradual re-introduction of some services by Berkshire Medical Center. That is a process that continues on a daily basis, said panelist Ruth Blodgett, senior vice president of planning and development for Berkshire Health Systems.

Blodgett said while the closure of the hospital was "a blow" to everybody, it presented a chance to look more closely at how health and health care are linked in the region.

"What that comes opportunity," she said. "I'm a silver-lining kind of person."

Blodgett said BMC is dedicated to finding the services that North County residents need the most, which is why the initial focus was on re-opening an emergency department. Other departments have followed, including mammography (and other outpatient imaging), home care and hospice, and endoscopy.

"Our focus here is to bring health-care resources to the community that are important to everybody," she said, adding in response to a question later in the forum that the "sustainable" services BMC hopes to bring north will be defined not only by economic sustainability but also those that can create and sustain a culture of health.

And with those decisions comes the chance to redirect the conversation from brick and mortar buildings and doctors in white coats to the lifestyle that would serve North Berkshire residents the best.

"It's not about hospitals. It's not about health care. It's about health," she said. "We want to build on that (and) work together to promote a culture of health and a healthy lifestyle."

Indeed, panelist Cathleen McElligott, director of the division of primary care and health access for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health's Office of Rural Health, said this is a conversation that is happening all over the country, as more studies confirm that only 20 percent of a person's level of health depends on clinical services.

The other 80 percent? Personal choices and behavior.

"We've really begun to understand and document that," she said.

With that in mind, McElligott spoke about the "Triple Aim" concept of health living, a three-pronged approach developed by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement that describes an approach to optimizing health system performance. The three pieces are: improving the patient experience of care (including quality and satisfaction); improving the health of populations; and reducing the per capita cost of health care.

It's a new concept but one that is being embraced in many places, she said.

"There's a whole transformation around health care organization," she said. "What can we do to keep the community healthier?"

Perhaps no one had more concrete ideas on that very question than panelist Dr. Mark Pettus, director of medical education and medical director of Wellness and Population Health at Berkshire Medical Center, who gave a passionate, inspiring presentation on the subject.

"The health of a community is not well correlated with the health of a hospital," he said, adding that Berkshire County ranks 11th out of the 14 counties in Massachusetts in terms of health issues like life span, the prevalence of chronic health conditions, teen pregnancies and smoking rates. "Healthy living ... doesn't happen at hospitals. Healthy living doesn't happen at doctors' offices. Healthy living doesn't happen in most traditional clinical settings. Healthy living, and the road to healthy living, is paved by the choices we make each and every moment."

Pettus acknowledged that the society that we live in makes it very difficult to lead healthy lifestyles, from the food we eat to the jobs and hobbies we have to the sleep we get.

"Your great-grandparents would have had no familiarity with the foods we consume today," he said. "Our environment challenges us in ways that make it very difficult to stay well."

Pettus said that many people believe for the first time every, our children can expect a shorter lifespan than ourselves because of these challenges. It's a sad thought, but Pettus painted a picture of hope and optimism, especially for Berkshire County.

"We are really well positioned to be attracting grant money," he said. "In Boston, they look to us in the Berkshires as a place where we can create models."

Some of those pending grants will give local agencies the tools to help "empower" individuals to make healthier decisions every moment of the day.

"What's going to be on the end of your fork? How are you going to relate or interact with the next level of engagement that you have? What might you do tonight or today or the next moment to express compassion in ways I know you do all the time, but in ways that in health care we tend to lose sight of the power of that," he said. "If we can't do it, nobody can."

After a rousing round of applause at the conclusion of Pettus' talk, Bashevkin looked out at the crowd of about 75 people in attendance and said, "I feel better!"

And people in general do seem to be feeling better about the health care picture in North County, according to North Adams Mayor Richard Alcombright, who braved a case of laryngitis to nevertheless say a few words about how North County has rebounded from the hospital's closure with much help and dedication from Berkshire Health Systems executives and local and state officials.

"I never thought when I got that call back in March ... that we would be where we are today," he said.

 

 

 
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