Beth Israel and Milton Hospital Formalize Affiliation

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and have formalized their long-standing collaborative relationship under a new agreement that will enhance the existing clinical affiliation and allow both institutions to further their common missions of promoting the health of the communities they serve. 

Under the new arrangement, Milton Hospital will be renamed Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Milton to reflect the greater integration.

The new agreement, which took effect on January 1, will result in better coordination of care and services through shared electronic medical information and coordinated clinical and programming. BIDMC will work more closely with Milton to identify opportunities to enhance the services available locally to patients. Patients with complex medical needs who require tertiary care or specialty services unavailable in Milton will have a smooth access to caregivers and services at BIDMC, a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School.

“Over the past eight years, Milton’s association with BIDMC has allowed us to expand services and strengthen the quality of care we deliver,” said Joseph V. Morrissey, CEO of Milton Hospital. “This new agreement cements the already-strong commitment between the two hospitals. It allows Milton to become part of BIDMC’s large health care delivery system ensuring that patients in Milton and the neighboring communities of Quincy, Randolph, Braintree, Canton, Hyde Park and Dorchester, where Milton Hospital has served residents for the past 108 years, will continue to receive the very best care available.”

“We are pleased by the opportunity to formalize our work with this excellent community hospital,” said Kevin Tabb, MD, President and CEO of BIDMC. “Our expanded relationship with Milton strengthens our community network, and is fundamental to our long-standing philosophy to provide care in the right place at the right time.” 

“We are delighted to expand our collaboration with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and are pleased that our patients from Granite Medical Group and Harvard Vanguard will have another excellent community-based option for their care on the South Shore in Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Milton,” said Gene Lindsey, MD, president and CEO of Atrius Health.

“Milton Hospital has provided the town’s residents with high quality medical treatment for more than 100 years,” said state Sen. Brian A. Joyce of Milton. “I am confident this new, closer affiliation of two excellent health care organizations will mean that my constituents, neighbors and family will continue to receive the same high quality care in the community that we have grown accustomed to over the last century.”

In 2003, BIDMC and Milton began collaborating on geriatric services and the development of theCardiac Rapid Transfer program, which provides emergency cardiac access in the community for patients undergoing coronary angiography, angioplasty, stent placement and other cardiac procedures. Cardiologists at both hospitals use joint protocols and procedures for patient care to ensure a smooth transition from the community to tertiary setting as needed.

Harvard Medical Faculty Physicians (HMFP) at BIDMC operates the Emergency Department at BID-Milton. The hospitals also have strong existing relationships in hospitalist services, cardiovascular health, orthopedics, gynecology, prostate health and geriatrics. For the past five years, the hospitals have jointly funded the salary of a Chief Medical Officer who is dedicated to Milton but has tight linkages to BIDMC’s Department of Health Care Quality.

Under the new agreement, day-to-day operations remain unchanged and locally driven. Milton retains its separate license, Board of Directors, independent medical staff and senior leadership, some of whom will have new reporting relationships to BIDMC counterparts.

BIDMC representation on the Milton board will increase to three members from the current two and the Chair of the Milton Hospital Board of Directors will become a member of the BIDMC Board of Directors.

BIDMC is committed to providing additional clinical resources, including bringing additional primary care physicians to the communities served by BID-Milton, being a resource for the development of enhanced local clinical programs, and to adding more types of medical specialists as may be required to support new programs and services.

“Combining our existing services with the resources of BIDMC, our hospital will become clinically stronger, financially more secure and better able to enhance the level and types of services in a cost-effective manner,” said H. Esterbrook Longmaid, MD, Milton’s chief of radiology and a member of the Board of Directors.

“Milton Hospital patients will continue to receive high-quality care from the providers they know and trust,” said Stanley M. Lewis, MD, BIDMC’s senior vice president of network integration. “At the same time, they will become part of a larger health care delivery system, where patients with complex medical needs who require tertiary or specialized care not available in Milton will have a direct link to caregivers and services at a Harvard-affiliated academic medical center.” 

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center is a patient care, teaching and research affiliate of Harvard Medical School, and currently ranks third in National Institutes of Health funding among independent hospitals nationwide. BIDMC is clinically affiliated with the Joslin Diabetes Center and in the community with Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Needham, Lawrence General Hospital and Anna Jaques Hospital and is a research partner of Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center. BIDMC is the official hospital of the Boston Red Sox. For more information, visit www.bidmc.org.

Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Milton, is an 81-bed community hospital. Its medical staff provides a wide range of services, including primary care, a range of surgical specialties and sub-specialties, emergency medicine, critical care, neurology and ambulatory surgery. It has been serving Milton and the surrounding communities since 1903.

The above release was submitted by Megan Hand, Milton Hospital.