Two Docs Vie for Cape Regional Staff Vice Presidency

COURT HOUSE — The 112-member medical staff at Cape Regional Medical Center will determine its leadership tomorrow, Jan. 21.
There are five doctors vying for four open spots. Three are uncontested.
Dr. Donald Tomasello is running for the Secretary/Treasurer position and Dr. John Ruskey and Dr. Monique Scally for two member-at-large positions.
The only contested race is for the position of vice president/president elect between Dr. Arthur Childs and Dr. Suketu Nanavati.
Nanavati ran unsuccessfully for the same position in 2008 against Dr. Richard Michner, who will take over for current President Dr. Michael Boriss following this year’s election. Nanavati lost with 30 percent of the vote, he said.
Nanavati told the Herald he is running: to improve the hospital’s quality of care; to increase profitability by improving service, not by cutting corners; to enforce hospital bylaws uniformly; and to bring more young competent specialists onto the hospital staff.
“I worry for my patients. I feel that the current medical staff leadership and hospital administration make choices that don’t always have patient care as the priority,” Nanavati said. “If elected, I will work to change that.”
Regarding his qualifications for the position, Nanavati pointed to his excellent mortality rates as a cardiologist and his past performance as medical staff president from 1998 to 2000 for which he was awarded a resolution from the hospital’s Board of Trustees acknowledging him as “a leader whose efforts contributed most positively to the enrichment of Burdette Tomlin Memorial Hospital and the community it serves.”
Childs, who serves as the director of Critical Care and the Diabetic Care Team at the hospital, told the Herald that he sees medical staff leadership elections as “a forum meant to unite the medical staff toward a common goal of improving quality patient care throughout the system and community.”
“The healthcare system in this country is undergoing enormous change that will affect our community in many unforeseen ways,” Childs said. “With a unified medical staff we can weather the storm bringing bold new initiatives to this hospital and community.”
He said the medical staff and the hospital must:
• Fill the gap of desperately needed specialty and quality primary care access.
• Provide outreach to the community to foster health and fitness with outreach programs such as our Diabetes Team and Health Fitness and Cardiopulmonary rehabilitative programs.
• Do better in improving inpatient quality initiatives with physicians working together to implement quality care guidelines and we must bring our Hospital and community into the 21st century with workable and user friendly portable electronic medical records.
• Not loose track of why we trained so many long years to become physicians…to devote the best that we have to offer in dealing with our patients and our communities need for compassionate and dedicated healthcare.
He said “this can only be done with a unified staff that works together with each other, the administration and community towards our common goal.”
According to hospital spokesman Tom Piratzky, medical staff officers are charged with:
• Developing the group’s bylaws
• Providing continuing education opportunities relating to the type and nature of care, treatment and services
• Providing oversight in the process of analyzing and improving patient satisfaction
• Educating patients and their families
• Coordinating care with other practitioners and hospital personnel
• Completing patients’ medical records
• Using the findings of the assessment process in the ongoing evaluation of practitioners’ competence
• Communicating findings to improve performance to appropriate staff members and hospital officials
• Providing oversight for the quality of care at the hospital by recommending practitioners for appointment and reappointment to the staff.
Contact Hart at (609) 886-8600 Ext 35 or at: jhart@cmcherald.com