Millennium PPS

I attended my first meeting as a member of Millennium Collaborative Care’s Southern Tier Council on Thursday. During the meeting, Richard Braun, Senior Vice President of Finance and CFO of Upper Allegheny Health System, was elected as our representative to the MCC Board of Managers. Healthy Community Alliance Executive Director Sharon Mathe and UPC Executive Director Gail (Speedy) Mayeaux were elected co-chairs of the Southern Tier Council. Millennium Collaborative Care is a Performing Provider System (PPS) headed by the Erie County Medical Center in Western New York. More than 400 health care providers and organizations are part of Millennium Collaborative Care. We’ve pledged to work together to achieve the goals of New York’s Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment (DSRIP) program. The overarching goal of DSRIP is to help New York and its health care providers achieve the triple aim of improved population health, improved quality care, and controlled costs. I want to congratulate Rick, Sharon and Gail on being chosen by their peers to lead and represent the Southern Tier Council. I’m excited to be part of the Southern Tier Council and serve as a voice for our rural communities.

EMS Recruitment

We sent out a survey to fire chiefs and EMS captains to determine if there is support for a regional EMS recruitment and retention program. Based on their responses, we’re designing a recruitment and retention program and are applying for a $25,000 grant from the NYS Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Services to provide localized outreach that would drive recruits to EMS agencies in their home communities. Nearly 100 percent of those who responded to the survey said their agency would benefit from an EMS recruitment and retention program. The majority said they’re looking for volunteer providers in the 18 to 40 age group, but a significant number of respondents said they’d like to recruit active retirees to cover daytime shifts. EMS recruitment and retention has been an issue for many years. We need to take steps to ensure our community has the EMS providers it needs going into the future. For more information about the program, please contact me at (716) 372-0614 or dkahm@sthcs.org.