By Tracey Drury – Reporter, Buffalo Business First
Dec 12, 2022
Western New York hospitals have seen a ton of transition at the top this year: Seven new leaders have taken over since May.
While some were promoted from within, others came from related health care companies or from outside the region entirely.
Martin Boryszak
President, Mercy Hospital
Background: Boryszak, who will continue to serve as senior vice president of acute care services for the entire Catholic Health system, served as president from 2017 to 2019 at Sisters of Charity Hospital. He moved to the Mercy post in September.
About: With 389 beds and revenue last year of $391 million, Mercy Hospital is the largest hospital in the Catholic Health system.
What’s your strategy for managing staffing shortages? “The biggest thing we have to work on is retention. The folks who were left standing for the last two and a half years, they’re tired and there’s a tremendous amount of fatigue. Ultimately, when you’re working short, that has a domino effect on the people left in the building. You really have to stop the churn of people leaving.”
What are some of the most pressing challenges the hospital and the health care industry are facing now? “I think they’re kind of one and the same, though it’s a little magnified at Mercy after the work stoppage last year, but it’s staffing. It’s a nationwide problem and it’s a local problem: There just flat out aren’t enough people to support the day to day.”
Where do you see the hospital’s biggest opportunity for growth? “I think there are going to be competitive opportunities with the ambulatory market so what the hospital has to do is take good care of the specialties that will remain in the acute care setting. It becomes a function of identifying a key service area that will require an acute care touchpoint and make sure you can provide quality in those settings.”
• • •
Beth Hughes
President, Buffalo General Medical Center and Gates Vascular Institute
Background: Hughes, who was named to the position Oct. 3, brings a 30-year career in health care that includes senior leadership posts at hospitals across the Midwest and New England regions, most recently as president of Mercy Medical Center in Sioux City, Iowa.
About: Buff Gen has more than 3,000 employees overseeing 484 patient beds and is Kaleida’s largest hospital and serves Erie County’s largest market share, with 20% of all inpatient visits during 2021.
What’s your strategy for managing staffing shortages? “(In Iowa) we’ve supported our nurses by bringing in other personnel to make sure the nurse is performing at the top of his or her license. … We’re bringing in people who can support the patient who don’t need to be a nurse to give that type of support, such as paramedics in the emergency department or EMTs, as many people as we can bring in and train. It’s a satisfier and gives them a career path.”
What are some of the most pressing challenges the hospital and the health care industry are facing now? “As everybody knows, it’s about the economics of health care, and they just aren’t what they used to be. ... The purpose of not-for-profit health care is to take profits and reinvest in the community through services and equipment. That has gotten obviously much more challenging as health care has hit an economic downturn.”
Where do you see the hospital’s biggest opportunity for growth? “There’s a growing elderly population, which is probably true across the country. One of the first areas to look at for growth is geriatric medicine and really focusing on the care of the elderly. … But it’s all about the providers if you have really good providers who want to build programs and services.
• • •
Kenneth MorrisPresident, Brooks-TLC Hospital System
Background: With 20 years’ experience in health care, Morris served as vice president of operations since joining the system in 2018. He was previously director of North Texas Division of Neuroscience and Baylor University Medical Center.
About: Brooks-TLC, which includes a 65-bed hospital in Dunkirk and several outpatient facilities, had revenue last year of $50 million. A new replacement hospital is in development for Fredonia.
What’s your strategy for managing staffing shortages? “Folks have options, and so many different employment opportunities out there. We have to make sure they understand what our mission is, that we’re here to serve people, and they know that they are valued. We’re working with agencies not only to attract local talent but international talent. We’re starting to see some success there, taking what the larger systems use and apply at a smaller level.”
What are some of the most pressing challenges the hospital and the health care industry are facing now? “Financially, hospitals in rural settings are struggling across the board and the entire country is facing challenges. We’re obviously no different, though the spotlight is certainly on us with a new hospital potentially out here in the future.”Where do you see the hospital’s biggest opportunity for growth? “Two come to mind: One is the ability to move on this new hospital. Any time you have development it attracts talent. People want to be part of new developments so that would be key to our recruitment efforts for staff and for physicians, and not only attract but retain those individuals currently on the market.”
• • •
Dr. Jill Owens
Background: Owens, who was chief medical officer for the system, has been a practicing physician in the Bradford area for more than 20 years. She is also medical director for Upper Allegheny’s three affiliated physician networks.
About: The Upper Allegheny system, which had a 2020 budget of $176 million, includes the 186-bed Olean hospital in Cattaraugus County and a 107-bed center in Bradford.
What’s your strategy for managing staffing shortages? “We’ve taken the approach that we have to be the place where people want to come to work. … We have to create a culture that supports and empowers them to do the work they do at the highest level, the highest quality and makes it so people want to come work for us. That’s what we’re trying to do, change our culture into that culture that’s supportive and empowering.”
What are some of the most pressing challenges the hospital and the health care industry are facing now? “The fact that the amount (payers) compensate you to provide care is way out of proportion to what it costs us to provide care. … Then we have supply chain costs that are up like everyone else and we’re trying to do the same with less. It’s an unsustainable equation.”
Where do you see the hospital’s biggest opportunity for growth? “In the last year, we’ve had some of the best physician recruiting I’ve ever seen. Part of it is our size, Olean in particular is a little bigger of a rural hospital with an ICU and specialists so doctors feel a little more secure. ... Being able to add physicians and services at a time when everyone else is struggling, that will be a great opportunity for us.”
• • •
President, John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital of Buffalo
Background: A practicing pediatrician with UBMD Pediatrics, Turkovich served since 2014 as chief medical officer at Children's and has been chief quality and patient safety officer in the department of pediatrics for three years.
About: Children’s is the only freestanding pediatric hospital in New York state and among just 43 nationwide. It is the region’s only Level 1 pediatric trauma hospital. An expansion is underway to increase total bed count to 191.
What’s your strategy for managing staffing shortages? “Our top focus internally is rebuilding our workforce. Our workforce has been really challenged from a burnout perspective and it’s difficult because there’s just not enough people out there. So it’s not just about recruiting but also about retaining. How do we build an environment where we decrease the burdens, and how do we build a workplace that is more flexible?”
What are some of the most pressing challenges the hospital and the health care industry are facing now? “Health care has transformed and changed so much over the last two to three years, partially due to the pandemic but also due to the nature of what’s happened in medicine and the way that people interact with medicine and access medicine. We need a much stronger focus on health equity and disparities.”
Where do you see the hospital’s biggest opportunity for growth? “Part of that is growing the surgical programs we have and greatly expanding those. Another area we’re continuing to grow is our joint venture with Roswell Park (Comprehensive Cancer Center) for pediatric cancer, expanding the bone marrow program. We’ve got a lot of great things going. The move to this campus has allowed us to grow and part of that will be growth through collaboration with other entities.”