As Bayhealth celebrates the 20th anniversary of its formation from the merger of Kent General and Milford Memorial Hospitals, it has some new initiatives designed to ensure a bright future for the area. Terry Murphy has been CEO of Bayhealth for seven years and describes why he expects the hospital to thrive moving forward.
Bayhealth has partnered with Bayada to create a stronger home health care component. How will that partnership help you?
We know home care is going to continue to grow more and more, due to the need to monitor our patients. It will be a big part of the future. This provides a continued elevation of our capabilities in patients’ homes.
What benefits do you see from it?
We can have earlier intervention. If things are going in a bad direction, a home care visit is better than having the patient show up in the emergency room four days later. This service will provide more than what is available now, especially for patients with multiple chronic conditions.
This has a cost component too. Is that correct?
It can help us handle patients’ problems on an outpatient basis or in the home before an ER visit. That provides more value and less expense.
What are some of the highlights of your new health campus?
This is a $314 million reinvestment into the community. We are on 167 acres, and over the next 10 to 20 years, this will allow us to expand and grow in Sussex County for generations to come. We were also able to sell our previous campus to Nationwide Healthcare, so instead of leaving 22 acres vacant in downtown Milford, we have addressed a need for additional skilled nursing beds in the area and created 300 jobs.
What will your new EPIC system do for patients?
The technology platform will allow patients to use their devices to self-schedule primary care visits and also connect with health care professionals via telemedicine. It will provide better and less expensive access.
