Kaleida Health - Buffalo General Hospital

Kaleida Health is the largest non-profit health care provider in Western New York, United States. Founded in 1998, the organization supplies the area's eight counties with health services throughout five different hospitals and separate medical centers. It is also a chief teaching associate of the University at Buffalo's schools of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and Dental Medicine.

Hospitals and Services

Throughout the system, Kaleida Health has 1,800 physicians and 3,000 nursing personnel to help provide health care such as home care, long term care, medical, pediatric medical, education and prevention, support, cardiac and emergency stroke care services. Kaleida also helps conduct hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers, primary and specialty care centers, behavioral health and rehabilitation centers, home care and school based health centers, long term and subacute care centers, laboratory services and corporate facilities.

Hospitals

• Buffalo General Medical Center (Buffalo)-The largest Kaleida hospital, founded in 1855. With 511 beds, this acute care medical center offers specialized programs such as urology, psychiatry, cardiac rehabilitation, organ transplantation and neurology, amongst many others.
• Gates Vascular Institute (GVI) (Buffalo)-Opened in May 2012, this building houses a new emergency department, nearly 600 patient beds, 30 operating rooms and 17 interventional radiology labs for cardiac, vascular and neurosurgical procedures.
• Women & Children's Hospital of Buffalo-Buffalo's main center for pediatric and women's services since 1892. Holding 190 beds, it offers services such as maternity care, pediatric intensive care, physical medicine and rehabilitation and neonatal care. The hospital will close in 2016, moving its services over to Buffalo General in a building called The John R. Oishei Children's Hospital, slated to open in early 2017.
• Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital (Amherst)-Built in 1974, this 201-bed facility provides hospital services including gynecology/obstetrics, dialysis, orthopedic surgery, ambulatory surgery and diagnostic nuclear medicine.
• DeGraff Memorial Hospital (North Tonawanda)-Founded in 1914 and holding 70 beds, this hospital provides medical and surgical services, a specialized medical rehabilitation unit for patients requiring special needs after surgery and a skilled nursing facility.
• Millard Fillmore Gates Circle Hospital (Buffalo)-A 189-bed acute care hospital founded in 1872. Services include neurosurgery, orthopedic surgery, cardiology, dentistry, dermatology, urology, respiratory therapy, skilled nursing and pulmonary studies. The hospital closed in 2011, moving its services over to Buffalo General in a building called The Gates Vascular Institute and the hospital was demolished by implosion on October 3, 2015 to make room for a new senior housing facility slated to open in the fall of 2016.

Administration

• Jody L. Lomeo (CEO)-Interim President and Chief Executive Officer
• Jonathan T. Swiatkowski (CFO)-Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
• David P. Hughes, MD (CMO)-Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer
• Toni L. Booker-Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer
• Donald Boyd-Senior Vice President of Business Development
• Alyson Spaulding-General Counsel
• Michael P. Hughes-Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer

Patient Safety Concerns

A report produced by Consumer Reports in July 2015 on the prevalence of hospital-acquired infections gave Kaleida hospitals a below average ranking in 4 of the report's 5 categories. The ranking was based on hospita-reported data provided to federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention between October 2013 and September 2014.

Kaleida Health was also cited by Medicare for having high rates of infections and other patient-safety problems. The Hospital Acquired Conditions Reduction Program, which was created as part of the Affordable Care Act, seeks to incentivize hospitals to improve patient safety by measuring rates of hospital-acquired infection and other patient safety metrics and then penalizing hospitals that perform poorly. As a result of this program Kaleida Health has been penalized more than $1 million in 2016 through reduced Medicare payments.

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