Making health care available when and where you need it
Our path forward—access and impact
Providing timely access to quality health care requires continuous attention and improvement. The pandemic has only made that more apparent. The UVM Health Network is committed to improving the experience of our patients and accelerating our ability to expand access to the care our patients need. Our work focuses on three main goals:
• Hire successfully amid a national staffing shortage
• Reduce wait times for specialty care
• Increase hospital inpatient and emergency capacity
Initiatives moving us toward our goal:
Centralized scheduling
We know we need to reduce wait times for our patients so they can get the care they need as quickly as possible. As we continue to implement a centralized scheduling system, it will allow patients to choose from all available in-person and telehealth appointments across the Network.
Preserving local access
Ticonderoga, New York, is an example of how innovation and strong partnerships have kept essential care local in this rural community.
Moses Ludington Hospital was struggling to survive as a hospital. Working in close partnership with others, and with support from the state of New York, the hospital was transformed into a hub of local care and service, including a 24/7 emergency department and outpatient center with imaging, laboratory, physical therapy and specialty medical services. A new primary care clinic, along with skilled nursing and long-term care facilities bring together a range of services locally that are a part of Elizabethtown Community Hospital.
Shared health records
As of April 2022, all of our Network hospitals and clinics are connected to our Epic electronic health record system, connecting patients and providers to relevant health records whenever and wherever they are needed.
Strengthening recruitment
We are stepping up our recruiting efforts even more, such as the fully staffed Network recruitment team we are developing to fill nursing vacancies across the Network, as well as providing growth and development opportunities for employees to advance their careers.
Improving how, where and when we provide care
We constantly work to improve the environments where we provide care. Through medical villages, urgent care centers, rural specialty care clinics (cardiology, dermatology, colonoscopy, endoscopy, women’s health and orthopedics), renovating existing spaces or building modern facilities for outpatient surgeries and mental health care, we can support the most up-to-date practices and respond to the changing needs of our patients. In recent months, MRI wait times have declined to two weeks from a high of eight weeks, due in part to the new MRI at one of our service locations. The addition of weekend appointments for PET and CT scans have also helped drop wait times from eight weeks to four-to-six weeks.
Technology-enabled health care
eHealth refers to a variety of health care services that we provide by video, telephone and through other digital tools across our health system in Vermont and Northern New York. Video and phone visits, eConsults and remote monitoring continue to improve access to care for our communities.
