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Board Chooses Nationally Respected Healthcare Innovator Dr. Ronald Paulus to Lead Mission

Dr Ronald Paulus ASHEVILLE, N.C. — The Board of Directors of Mission Health System has selected Ronald A. Paulus, M.D., MBA, to be the new president and CEO of Mission Health System and Mission Hospital. Dr. Paulus, who has achieved national recognition in his role as Executive Vice President, Clinical Operations and Chief Innovation Officer at Geisinger Health System in Pennsylvania, will be the first physician to assume the top executive position at Mission and the first in N.C. to lead a community-owned, not-for-profit health system.

According to Mission Board Chairman George Renfro, Dr. Paulus' appointment will be effective by September 1, 2010. Dr. Paulus, who will succeed interim CEO Carleton T. Rider, was chosen by Mission's community-based Board after a national search.

Board Vice Chair Janice Brumit, who led the search committee, said they found in Dr. Paulus "a true innovator in healthcare, someone who has not only the proven track record but also the vision and passion to lead Mission toward even higher levels of patient-centered service and quality in this fast-changing healthcare environment."

Dr. Paulus, 47, has been at Geisinger since 2005, where he currently serves as executive vice president for clinical operations and chief innovation officer. That health system gained national attention during the recent healthcare reform debate as one of the country's leaders in delivering high quality, cost-effective care. While at Geisinger, Dr. Paulus had responsibility for more than $1 billion in clinical operations including two hospitals, more than 40 clinics and over 8,000 employees.

During his tenure at Geisinger, he was responsible for developing numerous system-wide innovations, led Geisinger's participation in the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services Physician Group Practice Demonstration and planned conversion to an Accountable Care Organization, created Geisinger's Accelerated Performance Program designed to dramatically improve clinical quality and operating efficiency and introduced numerous technology and care model innovations such as Geisinger's ProvenCare® acute bundled payment care model, dubbed by the New York Times as "Surgery with a Warranty." He has published and lectured extensively at the national level on the topics of physician-hospital partnerships to improve clinical care, engaging patients in actively managing their own health and in novel uses of healthcare data and technology.

Dr. Paulus said he is eager to join Mission – a system that, like Geisinger, has been held up as a model for combining high quality and low cost. "I see Mission's future as one of America's leading health systems, serving patients in new ways that result in better health outcomes for this entire region," he said. "I'm excited to begin to work alongside the physicians, nurses, other clinicians and staff at Mission who have built such an outstanding health system."

"One of the things that attracted me to Mission Health System is the long history of collegiality and cooperation among the hospitals and physicians in Western N.C. to provide the best care close to home. This is one reason why the region continues to be ranked as among the nation's best for providing high quality, low cost care. I look forward to getting to know the physicians and my fellow hospital CEOs personally and learning from them how we can work together to improve the health of the region," Paulus said.

Brumit commented that one of the reasons Dr. Paulus emerged as the Board's choice was the fact that his 20 year healthcare career has included leadership in a variety of settings. "He has a broad perspective, having been an executive with for-profit and not-for-profit healthcare organizations and has worked both successfully and extensively with both private practice and employed physicians," she said.

"As a physician executive, Dr. Paulus will bring a refreshing and welcomed perspective to the Mission Hospital administrative team," said William Hathaway, M.D., a cardiologist with Asheville Cardiology and incoming Chief of Staff at Mission Hospital. "His breadth of experience and success in prior endeavors is impressive and exciting. This choice exemplifies the commitment that the Board, the administration and the physicians at Mission have to the provision of world class health care for the patient's of Western North Carolina."

Dr. Paulus earned his M.D. degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia, PA, receiving the school's highest graduation recommendation: "outstanding." He completed his internship in Internal Medicine at the U.C.L.A. Medical Center in Los Angeles, CA. In addition to his medical degree, Dr. Paulus holds an M.B.A. with distinction from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School with a concentration in Healthcare Management, and graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Science in Economics from The Wharton School with a concentration in Health Policy.

Dr. Paulus said that he and his wife, Lori, and three children, ages 8, 11, and 13, are eagerly looking forward to relocating to the Asheville area.

Blue Ridge Regional Hospital recognized as a Community Value Five-Star Hospital

Blue Ridge Regional Hospital (BRRH) was recently recognized as a top-ranked Community Value Five-Star Hospital by Cleverley & Associates. The hospital also received this award in 2006, 2007, and 2008. This designation is based on an assessment of the hospital’s performance in four areas: financial strength and reinvestment, cost of care, pricing, and quality. Five-star hospitals stand apart from the rest because, while some hospitals may perform well in one or two areas, they have achieved strong performance in each of the four areas. Cleverley + Associates is a leading healthcare financial consulting firm specializing in operational benchmarking and performance enhancement strategies located in Columbus, OH.

“Blue Ridge Regional Hospital’s staff has worked hard to provide the high quality of care that our patients expect and deserve at a reasonable cost. We are thrilled to know that, once again, our hard work has been recognized and that we rank in the top twenty percent of hospitals in the nation,” said Keith S. Holtsclaw, president and CEO of BRRH.

In recent years Blue Ridge Regional Hospital has substantially upgraded its environment of care (a new clinical wing featuring all private patient rooms opened in 2007 and a new Women’s Imagining Center will open soon), range of services, and access to specialty clinics so patients do not have to travel to Asheville for treatment. The hospital is now implementing LEAN management principles, based on Toyota’s successful production model. This system creates a workforce trained to continuously enhance patient care, improve efficiency and eliminate waste.

BRRH owns Blue Ridge Medical Center—Mayland, Spruce Pine and Yancey Campuses, Blue Ridge Medical Center—Orthopaedics, Blue Ridge Medical Center—General Surgery, Blue Ridge Medical Center—Pain Clinic, Blue Ridge Urology, Blue Ridge Fitness and Rehabilitation Center, and Toe River Children’s Dental Clinic. With the hospital’s partner, American HomePatient, it owns and manages Blue Ridge Home Care.

BRRH Ranked Nationally Within Top Health Systems

Mission Health System, of which Blue Ridge Regional Hospital is a member, has been named one of the 51 best-performing health systems in the nation. The ranking was given in the annual quantitative study called The Thomson Reuters 100 Top Hospitals: Health System Benchmarks . It was awarded for demonstrating higher quality patient outcomes across all facilities in the system. Mission Health System was the only health system in North or South Carolina to receive the designation.

In all, 255 health systems were studied. According to the study, Mission Health System is among the top 20 percent in the nation for performance.

In addition to Blue Ridge Regional Hospital, members of Mission Health System are Mission Hospital and Mission Children's Hospital in Asheville, and McDowell Hospital in Marion.

“Blue Ridge Regional Hospital’s staff is committed to providing the high quality of care that our patients expect and the compassionate care that our patients deserve,” said Keith S. Holtsclaw, president and CEO of BRRH. “That’s why we implemented our successful patient family centered care model several years ago and are now among the first rural hospitals in the nation to implement Lean, Toyota’s successful production model, that develops a self-sufficient workforce trained to continually enhance patient care, improve efficiency and eliminate waste.”

In recent years Blue Ridge Regional Hospital has substantially upgraded its environment of care (a new clinical wing featuring all private patient rooms opened in 2007 and a new Women’s Imagining Center will open soon) and range of services. The hospital also owns Blue Ridge Medical Center—Mayland, Spruce Pine and Yancey Campuses, Blue Ridge Medical Center—Orthopaedics, Blue Ridge Medical Center—General Surgery, Blue Ridge Medical Center—Pain Clinic, Blue Ridge Urology, Blue Ridge Fitness and Rehabilitation Center, and Toe River Children’s Dental Clinic. With the hospital’s partner, American HomePatient, it owns and manages Blue Ridge Home Care.

Top performers in the studied health systems outperformed their peers – they provided better care, followed standards of care more closely, saved more lives, had fewer patient complications, made fewer patient errors, and had better overall patient satisfaction scores.

Specifically, the study noted:

• The top health systems are providing higher quality care and have better patient outcomes.

• Patients treated at hospitals in the winning systems are having better longer-term outcomes.

• Patients treated at hospitals in the winning systems are returning home sooner.

• Patients treated by members of the top health systems are reporting a better overall hospital experience than those treated in other similar hospitals which did not make the top 20 %.

• The top systems perform better even though they treat sicker patients.

The study shows that the leadership of hospital systems can improve quality of care and increase value to the communities. The study group included every system with two or more acute care member hospitals. Like all 100 Top Hospitals studies, it used publicly available data and objective statistical analysis. Performance measures, which focus on clinical quality and efficiency, reflect aggregated data across the entire system, including critical access hospitals.

Other systems named to the list include Cleveland Clinic, Kettering Health Network in Dayton, and Scripps Health in San Diego.

Blue Ridge Regional Hospital and American Cancer Society open a Cancer Resource Room at the hospital

Blue Ridge Regional Hospital held a ribbon cutting ceremony to open their new Cancer Resource Room, thanks in part to the American Cancer Society and the hard work of area resident, Chad Trivette, who raised funds to stock the room with educational materials and other supplies.

“The Cancer Resource Room offers information, wigs, turbans, and mastectomy products free-of-charge to cancer patients who do not have insurance or resources to purchase them,” said Curt Crowhurst, Asheville Area Executive Director with the American Cancer Society.

The Resource Room, located on the 2nd floor of the hospital’s physician office wing, close to the Chemotherapy Unit will also be site of the Look Good … Feel Better program. Offered by the American Cancer Society and staffed by volunteer beauty professionals, this popular program gives cancer patients advice about skin care, nail care and ways to deal with hair loss. Each woman also receives a free make-up kit.

“Blue Ridge Regional Hospital is excited to work with the American Cancer Society to bring this opportunity to Mitchell County,” said Jane Edwards, Vice President of Patient Care. “When we opened our new clinical wing several years ago, we also expanded our Chemotherapy Unit to meet the growing demand. Now we are able to offer even more services for cancer patients and their families, all in one location.”

The next Look Good … Feel Better class is scheduled for Monday, May 12 at 10 AM. To sign up for the class, call Allison Grindstaff, Blue Ridge Regional Hospital’s Associate Director of Philanthropy and Marketing at 828-766-1752 or e-mail her at Allison.Grindstaff@msj.org. The American Cancer Society is looking for volunteers to help manage the Cancer Resource Room. Please contact Sarah Gayle at

1-866-653-4286 or 828-231-6931 for more information.

Blue Ridge Regional Hospital is a Joint Commission accredited, national award-winning facility which has served Mitchell, Yancey and surrounding counties for over 50 years. BRRH also owns 3 rural health clinics (Blue Ridge Medical Centers (BRMC)—Mayland, Spruce Pine, and Yancey Campuses), BRMC—Orthopaedics, BRMC—General Surgery, BRMC—Pain Clinic, Blue Ridge Urology, Blue Ridge Fitness & Rehabilitation Center, Toe River Children’s Dental Clinic, and, in partnership with American HomePatient, owns and manages Blue Ridge Home Care with offices in Spruce Pine, Asheville, Boone, Brevard, and Marion.

The mission of the American Cancer Society is to save lives by helping people stay well, get well, find cures and fight back.

Blue Ridge Regional Hospital Salutes Dr. Larson with a Retirement Reception

Blue Ridge Regional Hospital hosted a retirement reception for family, friends, colleagues, and patients of Dr. David Larson, who retired on February 28, 2010. Dr. Larson moved to Spruce Pine in 1973, after graduating from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine and completing his residency in Internal Medicine and an additional year of training in Hematology/Oncology, both at the University of New Mexico.

When Dr. Larson joined the staff of what was then called Spruce Pine Community Hospital there were only 7 doctors on the Medical Staff—now there are 84. So much has changed over the years that he has practiced medicine, but one thing hasn’t changed and that is his dedication to his patients. In fact, he was still making house calls just a little over a week before his retirement.

“Blue Ridge Regional Hospital and the community have benefitted greatly from Dr. Larson’s expertise during his long service to this community and we wish him well as he leaves his years of medicine behind and begins his new life,” said Richard Montague, chair of hospital’s Board of Trustees, at the retirement reception. “David left us twice—the first time was when he was serving in the Army Reserves with the 312 Evac Hospital in Operation Desert Storm and then when he served on the faculty of what is now Wake Forest University School of Medicine from 1991-98. We like to think that he saw the error of his ways and learned that being a big fish in a small pond has its own unique appeal, as he had told the many medical students that he has mentored over the years.”

“Serving in a rural hospital setting is much more interesting than you would expect,” said Larson. “You deal with many of the same medical and administrative problems, but you are able to play a much more pivotal role in finding solutions. In addition, the doctors and nurses here are teammates rather than adversaries, which is not always the case in larger institutions.”

Larson served in a number of important capacities while on the Medical Staff of the hospital. He was Chief of Staff when the hospital completed a major expansion in 1976. He also served as President of the Medical Society, Vice-Chief of Staff and on multiple hospital committees, most recently as the Chair of the Credentials Committee. Dr. Larson considers his service on the Credentials Committee to be one of his top accomplishments. “The work of this committee is not well known outside of the hospital, but its work ensures that the physicians who are given privileges at Blue Ridge Regional Hospital are of the highest caliber and that helps to protect our community from charlatans and other bad guys,” said Dr. Larson.

Larson has been recognized for his expertise over the years, including multiple selections as one of the Best Doctors in America by Boston-based Best Doctors, Inc. In addition, he was inducted into the Eugene S. Mayer Community Service Honor Society at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill School of Medicine and is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians. He considers one of his career highlights to be the invitation to speak at Grand Rounds at the University of Rochester following his return from Operation Desert Storm in December of 1991. At that time Dr. Larson was considered his Army hospital’s expert on treating casualties from weapons of mass destruction such as mustard gas, chlorine gas, nerve gas and cyanide.

Although Dr. Larson is retiring, his legacy lives on with his daughter, Jennifer Larson, and his son-in-law, Steve North, who have both chosen to practice medicine in this community. Dr. Larson also has a son, Sam, who lives in Oakland, California. Dr. Larson and his wife Susan reside in Mitchell County and have been married for 43 years.

Blue Ridge Regional Hospital Tops Peers in HCAHPS Survey

Blue Ridge Regional Hospital (BRRH) topped its peer group of 41 hospitals with the quality score of 9.55 out of 10, with 0 being the worst hospital possible and 10 being the best, according to its most recent Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers (HCAHPS) survey conducted from April through June of 2009 by the Jackson Group. The HCAHPS survey, developed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, was designed to collect and report data to gain insight into the experience of patients in the hospital and the ways in which these experiences relate to the quality of healthcare Americans receive.

“We have worked hard over the years to ensure our quality of care is of the highest standard,” said Jane Edwards, vice president of patient care at Blue Ridge Regional Hospital. “Our nursing and clinical staffs undergo extensive training and have enthusiastically embraced our patient and family-centered care model, which is a collaborative approach that puts the needs of the patient and their family at the center of the patient’s individualized plan of care.”

Blue Ridge Regional Hospital implemented the patient and family centered care model in 2006 and since that time has seen its scores, which were already high, climb to the top of its peer group.

Each morning nurses develop daily goals in consultation with each patient, his or her family or caregiver, and his or her physician. The whole team then works throughout the day to achieve the goals. The hospital believes this approach has contributed to its high patient satisfaction scores because patients actively participate in decisions surrounding their plan of care. Within the last year, the hospital also implemented “team nursing” where two nurses are assigned to each patient on each shift. This has enabled staff to respond more quickly to each patient’s needs.

In a separate survey also conducted by the Jackson group from July through September 2009, 98% of patients said that they were pleased with the quality of care provided at Blue Ridge Regional Hospital.

“Although we are proud of these results and commend our staff for all of their hard work, we are never satisfied and continue to look for ways to improve” said Edwards. In the near future the hospital will be implementing “lightening rounds” which involve regular minute-long patient rounds with multidisciplinary caregivers. The intent of these rounds is to enhance communication and continuity of care and to identify any potential needs of the patients.