Community Catalyst, Adam R. Silverman MD, FACP
“Innovation is about execution of great ideas where others have failed.”
Wheeler’s path to its 50th anniversary and as a provider of whole-person, integrated care is heavily influenced by a strong, ongoing relationship with Saint Francis Hospital and Trinity Health Of New England. Adam Silverman, MD, FACP, vice president of population health at Saint Francis Healthcare Partners, has been a stalwart partner and advocate.
“What has always appealed to me about Wheeler is its willingness to be collaborative and work with other organizations,” Silverman says. “Health care is a difficult space and providers are all living and dying through collaboration.”
Silverman believes that Wheeler’s growth is largely due to a unique combination of opportunity, vision and work.
“It’s not natural or given for organizations to evolve as Wheeler has,” Silverman says. “The idea of integrated care isn’t visionary by itself; people have talked about this idea for 40 years or more. Innovation is about execution of great ideas where others have failed, and Wheeler’s been able to execute on a vision that others have just been able to talk about. I think the perspective it brings, of bringing primary care into a traditionally behavioral health-focused organization, versus the other way around, has been key.”
The relationship between Wheeler and Saint Francis / Trinity Health Of New England is a textbook example of how organizations can collaborate. Wheeler’s first Health & Wellness Center in Hartford in 2013 was opened through a partnership with the hospital for coordination of primary care and behavioral health services. In the years since, the two have worked together on emergency department behavioral health services in Stafford Springs, OB-GYN services in Hartford, and ensuring that pediatric patients of Saint Francis’s Gengras Clinic were efficiently and appropriately transitioned to Wheeler’s new Family Health & Wellness Center.
“Susan [Walkama] and her team have coalesced around an idea,” Silverman says.“Through their Family Health & Wellness Centers, they have created a service that has gone beyond behavioral health and substance abuse and really begins to get at whole-person care.It’s great to be able to partner, bounce ideas, share experiences and enable a successful relationship.When I was first introduced to Wheeler, they were described as the premier partner of behavioral health services in the region.And they continue to be the premier provider to collaborate with. That speaks to leadership and vision. “
“I think [Wheeler] becoming a federally qualified health center is a natural extension of what it wanted to do.Wheeler’s not just content to be successful in what it’s doing.It wanted to reach more people and address more needs. Wheeler is small enough that it can make a decision, take action, assess the outcome, and if the outcome is negative, it can adjust. It’s been willing to take chances and willing to get into spaces where others have failed or fled.”
Silverman sees significant challenges in tomorrow’s health care environment for all providers and funders.
“The fact of the matter is that quality needs to get better and costs need to drop across our health care system.We’re in an untenable situation in this state.When you talk to business owners, they describe health care expenses as ‘crushing.’ The ‘haves’ have access, and the ‘have nots’ do not.If we’re being honest, even the ‘haves’ don’t have access to care that is—by any objective measure of quality—as good or as affordable as it should be.”
The ongoing partnership with Wheeler fits into Saint Francis’s philosophy of service to community-focused health today and for the future.
“Saint Francis is dedicated to health equity and committed to value-based health care. Inherent in that must be available, accessible behavioral health care. That’s the logical connection in our relationship with Wheeler for a hospital that is an anchor in our community and gives that community a voice.Hospitals in cities have a major economic and psychological impact on the local quality of life. Interacting with organizations like Wheeler improves economic development, helps make care better for everyone, keeps people in the most appropriate level of care, and keeps everyone healthier.”
