Record-Journal – Tuesday, November 14, 2006
MidState fiscally fit
Board of Governors told hospital is thriving
By Jeffery Kurz, staff

WALLINGFORD - Despite fluctuations in reimbursements, MidState Medical Center remains fiscally fit, with an operating margin of $4.1 million for 2006.

Though that is down from the $6.1 million margin of 2005, Meriden’s hospital remains in good health, said Jeff Flaks, MidState’s vice president and chief operating officer.

“I think we’ve had a wonderful year,” Flaks said dur­ing the hospital’s 2006 Board of Governors meeting Monday at the Connecticut Hospital Association.

MidState continues to get high marks for patient and employee satisfaction, and with 1,200 workers remains one of the largest employers in the community. Lucille A. Janatka, Mid State’s president and chief executive, told the gathering of about 100 board mem­bers and supporters the hospital’s market share is growing dramatically in the Meriden-Wallingford area as well as in Cheshire and Southington, where MidState has medical office buildings.

The growth allows MidState to invest in technology that, as well as serving patients, makes the hospital a place where physicians want to work, she said.

“Great progress generates higher expectations,” she said.

To highlight the hospital’s progressive technology practices, the meeting included a presentation on MidState’s state-of-the-art computerized tomography equipment that renders detailed three-dimensional views of the heart. The technology can be used as a less invasive way to detect heart disease at the earliest of stages.

“MidState is very cutting edge in having this scanner,” said Dr. Robert J. Golub during the presentation. Janatka listed several accomplishments during the past year, including a major expansion, the Cornerstone Pavilion, which brought the hospital’s support departments to a unified location and freed areas for the emergency department and a new spine and pain­care service. The hospital also now runs a walk-in clinic in Wallingford and continues to run the Medi Quick center on the east side of Meriden.

The hospital also is adding staff to several depart­ments, including thoracic and ob-gyn care. “We’re adding to our expert physicians as fast as we can,” Janatka said.

MidState is setting its sights on emergency depart­ment expansion. When it opened its Lewis Avenue complex in late 1997, the emergency department was designed to handle about 28,000 visits a year. In recent years, it has experienced nearly twice the anticipated demand, with about 52,000 visits annually. Despite that, MidState in the last half year has been rated first among 15 hospitals in Connecticut experiencing simi­lar demands, Janatka said.

The hospital has focused on reducing the time it takes for patients to get treatment. MidState also has invested $400,000 in equipment to safely move pa­tients. “We’re doing very well with the efforts we’ve made,” Janatka said.

This year’s Crystal Obelisk Award, which since 1991 has honored individuals for out­standing contributions to health care, went to Margarete Stanchick, who began her health care career in 1970 as a business manager with the Meriden Visiting Nurse Association. Stanchick has been a vol­unteer at the hospital gift shop since 1980 and is a long-time member of the hospital’s auxil­iary, serving on the auxiliary board of directors the past 25 years.

Stanchick logged 10,000 hours as a volunteer, said Marc S. Nemeth, the outgoing chair­man of the board of directors.

The award came as a sur­prise to Stanchick, “because I think all the people that volun­teer for this hospital do as much as I do,” she said.

Replacing Nemeth as chair­man of the board of directors is Gail G. Mc Cormack.

Mc Cormack noted that three registered nurses are now in top positions at MidState: herself, Janatka, and Linda Berger Spivack, vice president for patient-care services.

“I think that should bode very well for the patients and staff of this hospital,” she said.

Marcia Proto, executive di­rector of the Connecticut League for Nursing, said “It’s a wonderful testament to the leadership roles women are playing in health care delivery on a national basis.”