You're accustomed to seeing Gary Carter in this space. He has done a remarkable job of leading the New Jersey Hospital Association for the past 14 years. But while Gary has moved on this month to a well-deserved retirement, his mark remains on this organization and across this page.
Those icons on the right side of our home page lead you to quality and pricing information for New Jersey's hospitals. That's the work of Gary Carter. He has always been a supporter of openness and a firm believer that the first step toward improvement is knowing where you stand. That was his patient-centered motivation in making this data public.
Search elsewhere on this site and you'll learn about NJHA's Institute for Quality and Patient Safety – another Gary Carter vision. He quietly led this organization to the front of the quality improvement movement, resulting in dramatic advances in preventing infections, reducing pressure ulcers and minimizing medication errors. New Jersey patients are better off, thanks to Gary Carter's groundbreaking work. His focus on quality improvement and patient safety is something I intend to continue.
I am fortunate to have learned by his side for many years and now have the honor of leading the organization that he helped shape. Some would question my timing – if not my sanity. The truth is, it's a tremendously difficult time for the hospital community, especially in New Jersey. A long list of challenges – most notably government funding cuts for hospital care for the poor and uninsured – have thrust our facilities into a state of crisis. I'm sure you've read about the recent rash of hospital closures in our state, or the heated debate over the state budget and its deep cuts to hospitals. It's an uncertain time for our hospitals, their 150,000 employees and the millions of patients they care for.
It's the mission of our work – helping hospitals help their patients – that drives us.
But I'm energized for the challenges ahead – and optimistic too. New Jersey is home to a healthcare system that we all can be immensely proud of. We have a network of acute care hospitals, rehabilitation facilities, mental health providers, long term care facilities, home health agencies, hospice, community clinics and their physicians and nurses working 24/7 to care for the people of our state. They offer a depth and breadth of quality services that I would proudly hold up to any other state in the nation – including those two metropolises across our Jersey borders.
If we stand together as a state, and as a community of healthcare professionals dedicated to caring for our residents, we have the clout and the know-how to address the problems that threaten New Jerseyans' access to quality healthcare services. The first challenge we face together is healthcare reform. We need a system that provides healthcare to our most vulnerable without driving our hospitals to the brink of financial ruin. But until that happens – and hopefully it will be a matter of months, not years – our hospitals remain the safety net for New Jersey's less fortunate. To abandon hospitals is to abandon New Jersey's 1.3 million uninsured residents, and we can't let that happen.
Confronting that problem will be one of my top priorities, and I welcome the opportunity to work with hospitals across the state and our elected officials to tackle it in a collaboratively fashion. It may not be easy, but it must be done. Please consider this message an open door to e-mail me at
presidentcolumn@njha.com with your thoughts and concerns. I've got my work cut out for me, and I welcome the feedback – good, bad or indifferent.
I consider myself fortunate to have the support of a knowledgeable Board and dedicated members, as well as an excellent staff of in-house experts committed to doing their very best. It can be easy to get mired in the mundane policy and minor headaches, but I think I can speak for all of us at NJHA when I say it's the mission of our work – helping hospitals help their patients – that drives us.