Hospitals Join Forces to Provide South Shore with Top-Quality Care Milton Hospital and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center have expanded their relationship to bring additional high-quality healthcare services to the South Shore community. An affiliation agreement, signed in November 2005, takes the collaboration between two of the region's most respected health care institutions to a new level. The hospitals have already begun working together in new ways to offer the highest quality community-based care and seamless transitions when tertiary care is needed. What is the nature of the relationship? Milton Hospital has met rigorous institution-wide clinical requirements to become an affiliate of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC). Collaborative clinical leadership and other interactions will ensure that the highest quality standards are maintained on an ongoing basis. BIDMC is proud to call Milton Hospital an affiliate. The relationship began on a smaller scale in 2003 with a geriatrics initiative led by Virginia Cummings, M.D., a prostate seed cancer treatment program, as well as programs to seamlessly transfer certain cardiac and stroke patients from the Milton Hospital Emergency Department to BIDMC. In a recent community survey, satisfied residents expressed great enthusiasm for these successful collaborations. For those patients in need of emergency cardiac care, the affiliation provides immediate, seamless access to BIDMC’s state-of-the-art cardiac catheterization labs. A dedicated transport system will bring patients having a heart attack from Milton Hospital’s emergency department directly to BIDMC. Cardiologists at both hospitals have developed joint protocols for patient care that ensure a smooth transition to Boston's only all-digital cardiac catheterization laboratory for patients undergoing coronary angiography, angioplasty, stent placement and other cardiac procedures. Milton Hospital and the BIDMC gerontology division are also jointly developing a geriatrics program. Virginia Cummings, M.D., director of geriatrics, heads the program, supported by nurse practitioners Roxanne Musto, RN-C, ANP, and Maureen O'Shea, RN-C, ANP, GNP, and Geriatrician Allen Waltman, M.D. The prostate seed program unites Milton Hospital urologists Clifford Gluck, M.D. and James Lin, M.D. with BIDMC radiation oncologist Dr. Irving Kaplan to offer brachytherapy, the implementation of radioactive seeds into the prostate to treat prostate cancer. What new programs will the affiliates create and when? Two new programs will kick off in the coming months: gynecology and hand surgery. Milton Hospital and BIDMC will continue to identify and develop additional programs that are expected to open over the next two years. Gynecology Sandra Dayaratna, M.D., a board-certified obstetrician / gynecologist from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, will open an office in the Milton Hospital Medical Office Building in January 2006. A Harvard Medical Faculty Physician, she specializes in laparoscopic surgery, which typically will take place at Milton Hospital. Hand Surgery Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center's Charles Day, M.D., and Tamara Rozental, M.D., both orthopedic hand surgeons will oversee a program specializing in hand surgery, wrist reconstruction, wrist and hand arthroscopy and wrist and hand joint replacement. Dr. Rozental is expected to begin performing surgeries this November. What is the bottom line? By assisting in the management of overall hospital quality, BIDMC is helping Milton to establish a new standard for community hospital care.

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