The Butler Health System has grown to 72 locations in seven counties but they have managed to remain both profitable and community-focused.
The system’s Board of Trustees held their annual Year-In-Review public meeting on Thursday. Among the topics discussed was the ongoing opioid crisis.
“We’re an Opioid Center of Excellence with the Department of Human Services in Pennsylvania and that’s for treatment. We’ve re-educated our doctors and all of our docs are participating in that state database. We check that on everybody now,” Dr. Tom McGill, Vice President of Quality and Safety, said Thursday.
Dr. McGill also gave a presentation on community health needs assessment. He detailed a four out of a possible five star rating given to BHS by Medicare, which is only shared by about 12 percent of hospitals in the country. Butler Health System has also made progress with screening programs for people at risk of lung and breast cancer, he said. Finally, McGill detailed the work BHS has done in local schools with initiatives to combat childhood asthma and obesity, as well as encourage vaccinations.
Butler Health System President and CEO Ken DeFurio also spoke at Thursday night’s meeting and outlined expectations on how Butler Health will use technology to offer even more significant improvements in access to care in the future.
“One of our focuses for this year is to use technology to improve access for patients because we have grown and we cover a larger geography. It’s really hard, especially with sub-specialty physicians, to get them to go way out into communities that may be pretty remote. A lot of times there’s not enough need there for them to spend time doing that but those patients still deserve great care so we are partnering with primary care physicians and others to make our specialists available via technology,” DeFurio said.
The Butler Health System remains a source of jobs and income for local residents as one of the top 50 employers in Western Pennsylvania.
