August 2009

The following are highlights from this month's edition of SMCS Physician (view entire newsletter here):

A Message from Tom Gagen, CEO
Push Continues for Heart Transplant Program

Our heart transplant program, which has provided services in Northern California for 20-plus years, is applying for new Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services program certification. Despite having excellent clinical outcomes, CMS removed our certification in February since we did not meet annual volume criteria.

The program is still operating without the certification, as both private insurance and Medi-Cal are working with us on a patient-by-patient basis. Five patients have been transplanted in the first six months of 2009, with three more currently active on the heart transplant list. Four Medicare patients needed to be listed at other heart transplant centers. To continue receiving CMS certification, Medicare required the program to have 10 transplants a year – a figure that seemingly could have been met this year if certification had not been pulled.

Hospital leadership took the decertification issue to the courts, but determined that directly working with CMS to resolve this issue is better for our patients and the community. CMS concurred and has agreed to evaluate the current program for certification based on the hospital's efforts to grow the program over the last several months. We continue to work closely with CMS and will undergo the recertification visit sometime between now and the end of September as part of our negotiated settlement.

This is a program that provides a much-needed service to our community, and we are hopeful that CMS will take into account the outstanding quality of our program and this issue will be resolved once and for all. I'll keep you posted.

A New Name for the Buhler Building

When the expansion of Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento is complete, the Sutter Cancer Center/Buhler Building will be christened with a new name – the Buhler Pavilion. Many of you may know of Richard Buhler, who served as chairman of the Sutter Community Hospitals Board of Trustees from 1979-1986. He was the first layperson to hold that position, and in that time led many reforms at the hospital, including the creation of a new "director of medical affairs" position to address medical staff concerns.

The Buhler Building was constructed on the site of the original Sutter Hospital, and it opened and was dedicated in 1988 as the Richard Buhler Building. The new name – the Buhler Pavilion – will be in keeping with the original intent of honoring one of the influential leaders in the history of Sutter Health.

The Buhler Building currently houses Sutter Cancer Center and Sutter Neuroscience Institute, as well as administrative offices. When the entire expansion project is complete, the Buhler Pavilion will also be home to Sutter Heart & Vascular Institute as well as other services.

The Buhler Building isn't the only building that will receive a new name upon expansion completion. Sutter General Hospital will be named the Ose Adams Medical Pavilion, with the entire campus being called, simply, Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento.

Read the entire entire newsletter here.