From the Medical Staff office

January 2015

This promises to be a very interesting year for health care. Many of us are concerned about the changes in Medicare and now it turns out the insurance companies are sprinting ahead of Medicare in the race to lower costs.

We will continue to strive to provide superb care as efficiently as possible. To that end, if you are asked for your input on Clinical Redesign projects, please participate, as we need an engaged medical staff if we are to achieve sustainable improvements.

As I mentioned previously, the Medical Staff Executive Committee passed a resolution requiring all medical staff members to attend a high reliability organization course. You can meet the requirement by showing us documentation that you attended a course at another area facility within the past two years.

Older courses do not meet the requirement since the course changed somewhat over the past few years. Please contact your department chairman, section chief or Alison Tighe (ext. 4790) for details on course offerings.

I want to thank Murray Morrison, MD, who officially retired in December. Murray is a superb surgeon, physician and role model for other physicians.

If you know Murray, you know he cares deeply about his patients, his colleagues and Bridgeport Hospital. We all benefited from the sacrifices he made to provide outstanding care and to improve the care we provide at Bridgeport Hospital.

Dr. Morrison is probably best known for the collaborative way that he and John Mangieri, MD, and David Bindelglass, MD, successfully developed the joint replacement surgery program at Bridgeport Hospital. They made it one of the cornerstones of our hospital.

I wish him the best as he continues along life’s journey and I thank him for the countless hours he spent at Bridgeport Hospital caring for ill patients and making us a better hospital.

Michael Ivy, MD

Chief Medical Officer