Progress report

Increasing capacity to reduce patient backlog

Moving forward.

Here are some highlights of the progress we’ve made to improve how, where and when we provide care. This list will be updated as further initiatives are implemented.

1. Radiology wait times

Through additional equipment and scheduling adjustments, we’ve significantly improved access to radiology scans, serving nearly 2,000 patients from across the region since the effort began.

MRI

MRI wait times have declined to three weeks from a high of eight weeks, due in part to the new MRI at one of our service locations.

PET & CT scans

Adding weekend appointments for PET and CT scans has helped drop wait times from eight weeks to two weeks.

Ultrasounds

Wait times for ultrasounds have dropped from a month to about one week.

2. Mental health access

We are working with state agencies in Vermont and New York, while partnering with community-based organizations, to improve access to mental health. We are working to:

    • Develop a mental health urgent care clinic serving Chittenden County.

    • Improve the psychiatric inpatient facility at Central Vermont Medical Center to reduce the number of patients waiting in the Emergency Department and provide a better environment for healing.

    • Establish more resources for eating disorder and transgender care clinics for youth through hiring additional staff, including a physician, dieticians, social workers, psychologists and support staff.

    • Expand hours for ambulance transport to Brattleboro Retreat.

    • Further integrate mental health care with our primary care sites.

3. Reducing surgical wait times

UVM Health Network operating rooms serve more than 20,000 patients per year across Vermont and northern New York.

Increased access

In the past 12 months, our hospitals increased access to much-needed surgical procedures through new efficiencies and by dynamically adjusting our operating room schedules—and in some cases, expanding their hours—to accommodate services with the most significant patient backlogs.

Robot-supported surgery

We have also accelerated access to our Network’s second daVinci surgical robot, which has helped to reduce wait times for robot-supported surgery in general surgery, gynecology, otolaryngology, thoracic surgery, and urology.

4. Improving access to specialty care with eConsults

Since launching in 2021, eConsults have quickly become an essential tool for helping our patients to access timely specialty care. Our clinicians initiated more than 1,000 eConsults during the past 12 months across 20 specialties in Vermont and New York.

5. Outpatient surgery center

We submitted a certificate of need to the Green Mountain Care Board to approve an outpatient, multi-specialty surgery center at our Tilley Drive campus in Vermont, expanding capacity and providing high-quality care effectively and efficiently.

If approved, the center will have:

8 operating rooms
12 prep rooms
36 recovery spaces, including
8 extended-stay recovery rooms.

We anticipate approximately 8,000 outpatient surgeries per year being performed at the center, directly addressing the growing local and regional demand for these services.

Our impact and progress

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