Cooperstown, NY – Bassett Healthcare Network President and CEO Tommy Ibrahim, MD, MHA, and his system executive leadership team recently unveiled a new operating model that will pave the way for system-wide transformation. Bassett, like many health care organizations across the country, has been facing increasing financial and regulatory pressures which have been recently intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic. The new operating model, known as OneBassett, will allow the network to continue to be successful while adapting for the future.
“Rather than operating as a collection of individual hospitals and health centers, this new model will deconstruct the silos and reorganize our network into a truly integrated enterprise,” explains Ibrahim. “We are moving away from hospital-centric decision-making to a system focused on the continuum of care, expanded access to services, and the best possible outcomes for our patients, no matter where that care is delivered.”
OneBassett operating model
Under the OneBassett operating model, traditional boundaries that prevented system-wide collaboration no longer exist. Network clinical and non-clinical services will be standardized across the system to eliminate variation and improve quality, performance, and productivity.
“OneBassett is the road map that will get us to our future state,” says Ibrahim. “It provides the structure for how we will work together and foster the necessary cultural shift and shared accountability for the patient’s journey through the care continuum. Ultimately, we will more effectively engage our entire workforce in Bassett’s mission to improve the health of patients and the well-being of the communities we serve.”
Geographical alignment of network services
Among the changes under the new operating model is a geographical restructuring of network hospital operations into northern and southern regions. Each region will be led by a team consisting of a system executive, vice president of operations, vice president of medical affairs, and a vice president of nursing who will provide oversight of clinical operations at the network’s five hospitals: Bassett Medical Center in Cooperstown, A.O. Fox Hospital in Oneonta, Cobleskill Regional Hospital, Little Falls Hospital, and O’Connor Hospital in Delhi.
Jeff Joyner, past president of Fox Hospital and now the network’s chief operating officer (COO) says, “This new operating model facilitates an expanded sharing of services within the network to gain economies of scale and enhance service delivery in a coordinated and integrated fashion.”
As part of the reorganization, the network executive leadership team also completed a review of all departments and functions across the system. The result was the pairing of leaders and staff with positions and responsibilities that make best use of their skillsets while reducing duplication of roles.
In the northern region, William LeCates, MD, president of Bassett Medical Center in Cooperstown, Ronette Wiley, the hospital’s chief operating officer, Donna Anderson, the hospital’s chief nursing officer, and Carlton Rule, MD, medical director at Little Falls Hospital (LFH), will assume the additional responsibilities of overseeing the clinical operations of LFH.
Michael Ogden, formerly president of Little Falls Hospital, is transitioning to a new network role as vice president of Patient Access for Bassett Healthcare Network.
In Bassett’s southern region, Eric Stein, president of Cobleskill Regional Hospital, will take on the added responsibility of overseeing the operations of A.O. Fox Hospital in Oneonta and O’Connor Hospital in Delhi. O’Connor’s current president, Scott Bonderoff, has accepted a new role as vice president of Clinical Support Services for Bassett Healthcare Network.
COVID-19 Impact & Reduction in Force
As a result of the network reorganization, and in response to increasing financial and operational pressures brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, Bassett has eliminated 15 leadership positions. Impacted employees will receive severance pay and outplacement services and counseling will be made available.
“This decision did not come easily and is one of the most difficult decisions that leaders have to face,” shared Ibrahim. “We balanced this decision against our moral and social obligation to continue serving the health care needs of our communities. We understand the impact of this on people’s lives and the community and have made every effort to go through this restructuring and right-sizing process with empathy and compassion, displaying dignity and respect for all involved. Our mission to improve the health and well-being of the community is the reason we exist. Reducing or eliminating health care services is counter to that mission.”
The organization is also reducing executive salaries, retraining employees for open network positions, and redeploying staff to support COVID-19 response efforts.
An additional 41 positions will be eliminated in March of 2021. Employees currently holding these roles will be participating in a new network-wide program called SCORE (Securing Career Opportunities for Redeployed Employees).
“Our goal through this process has been to preserve jobs and keep as many people as possible employed with the network long-term. The SCORE program aims to help redeploy employees who have been adversely impacted by COVID-related volume declines and organizational restructuring by providing career counseling, resume and interview assistance, and retraining for internal opportunities,” stated Ibrahim. “We are also redeploying some employees from their current positions into roles working with our incident command team in support of critical needs related to our COVID-19 response. We have taken extraordinary steps to reduce the impact on our employees and community.”
Bassett leadership were able to eliminate several recently vacated positions and new openings before making reductions of staffed positions. Network executives will be taking a 5% to 10% voluntary reduction in pay and President and CEO, Tommy Ibrahim, will be continuing to reduce his salary by 20%, as he has done since taking on his role in July. Other operational efficiencies and cost-savings opportunities as a result of the new operational model have also been identified. No additional staff reductions are planned at this time.
Bassett in 2025
The new system operating model sets the stage for achieving Ibrahim’s vision of Bassett in 2025. The performance improvement journey aims for the Bassett Healthcare Network to be:
-The best place to work and practice
-Provide a best-in-class care delivery model
-Be the preferred provider of choice
-Achieve increased operating revenue growth
-Achieve national and international prestige
Implementation of Bassett’s new integrated operating model is ongoing and should be complete in the first quarter of 2021.
What a bunch of PR horseshit. There is no financial problem except at the top where these no nothings work. There was no need to cut the jobs of the lesser paid employees. Pathetic display by Dr. Ibrahim and his new council of goons.
some people need to be let go. we shouldn’t have to get into verbal confrontations with women who are suppose to be making appointments playing doctor and violating HIPPA laws. i have had terrible service. been miss diagnosed numerous times and when i fight it they say to bad doctors are human and make mistakes. god forbid you miss a bill payment omg the lawyers call you day and night the u go into collections in 30 days.
i had a doctor tell me how broke Bassett is. they wanted the doctors and nurses to not take vacations and give back time so they would not have to pay vacation.
doc says they are crying money issues but i cant get an operation after 4:00pm.
i have switched hospitals and had a doctor find an issue and fixed it in one visit where Bassett couldn’t figure it out in 5 years. sad but true, just a revolving door for doctors.
AND HORRIBLE PARKING.
I’m not sure what this has to do with Bassett Hospital but some of the latest hospital computer information systems end up being confused with a zillion of data bytes, all kept in highly formatted forms. I think its quite interesting but I’m not employed by the hospital so I really can’t judge. I have a few years computing experience but not in over 20 years. Keep up the good work.
Yes many managers needed to go because they were too scared to make a decision and the ones that are still there have the same problem. It has been like this for years. NOONE wants to rock the boat because there are hundreds of people ahead of you who tried with solid problem identification and solid solutions that NOONE LISTENS TOO ! Not only that Those poor people are GONE and FAST. The rest of the the non management employees struggle daily to figure out exactly WHAT TODAYS POLICY IS ?! Good luck trying to find an answer To that one. In 2025 the place will either be worse (which is hard to believe anyone would survive worse than what they have deteriorated to now). Or gone . The Board of Directors actually run the show and they are beyond clueless. They are only there because they are old money in Cooperstown for years. THEY NEED TO GO. The patients are suffering and so are the employees. They preach safety and act in an opposite fashion by not listening to the people they should who know how things work in the role they are in but their managers do not like that so the managers who are clueless to the roles they speak to offer up useless ideas that negatively impact the place even more. Holding meetings and asking what is wrong and then not taking informed answers is infuriating and frustrating and dangerous given this is a hospital. Not to mention that these meetings are basically finger pointing sessions. These so called meetings are held to make it “look like” they are trying. Every year the place degrades even further. It’s an intolerable environment to work in for most departments. Benefit quality is lowered every year. The last several years employees are required to see a Bassett Dr. A few are good but most are just people that probably had nowhere else to go, meaning bottom of the barrel pickins. So many of the good Providers have been jumping ship for years in anticipation of avoiding a sinking ship before it goes down. It’s very close to going down now. All the PR crap you read about is just that, crap. What a shame Bassett use to be a decent place to work and it had some integrity. Integrity is gone, compassion from leadership in regard to patients and employees is gone. The only thing they do care about is the patient surveys because it affects their revenue. Shame shame shame on any Senior members of Bassett who stood by and allowed or enabled the current patient and employee experience. You have NOONE to blame but yourselves. So stop trying to deflect blame to anyone else. The board, senior management , management in general of which there are way too many, you created this monster. Good Job.
Do not believe a word of it.