As I reflect on 2009, it was a year filled with positive and exciting achievements. In fact, it was the most progress I have seen an organization make in one year. Whether your focus was on increasing patient satisfaction; participating in quality initiatives; assisting in the development of a new service line; supporting our fundraising efforts or making Orange Regional a better place to work, accomplishing such progress takes a tremendous amount of commitment, enthusiasm and team work. While we still have a way to go, I’d like to congratulate everyone who made our success possible and share a few of the highlights that have laid the groundwork for future success in 2010.

The expansion of our cardiology program was a key milestone. Due to our outstanding outcomes with emergency angioplasty, we received approval to perform elective angioplasty. We are the first hospital to bring this service to Orange County. The start of construction on our second cath lab, the integration of two new vascular surgeons and an electrophysiology physician, along with our continued affiliation with Montefiore Medical Center, all add up to positioning Orange Regional as the heart care leader in our area.

We were successful in adding new technology with the da Vinci Robotic Surgical System for urological and gynecological surgeries; the Varian Rapid Arc, a new radiation therapy system and the Constellation Vision Surgical System for advanced retinal eye surgeries.

By improving the quality and consistency of care we provided to our patients, we exceeded inpatient volume targets by 4%. Additionally, we saw an overall increase in patient satisfaction scores; successfully launched the LEAN Hospital initiative for purposes of enhancing the quality of care we deliver; added 50 nurses to our units and developed a Patient Navigator Program to accommodate our cancer patients.

Our New Hospital Project remained on schedule and structural steel, concrete floors, exterior framing and roofing have been completed. Additional highlights of the building project included the completion of medical equipment planning; coordination of a move management strategy; welcoming a Director of Organizational Development to assist with the merger of departments from both campuses; the approval for our Level II NICU and the completion of 18 successful new hospital site tours with more than 200 participants.

Our Capital Campaign received 272 new gifts and our overall campaign total reached $18.5 million, exceeding our 2009 target of $18 million. Some Campaign milestones include: the Board of Directors, physicians and employees all surpassing their goals.

Additional organizational accomplishments include approval to purchase a state-of-the-art Electronic Health Record system; Arden Hill’s Stroke Center designation; an increase in our participation rate for the employee and physician engagement survey and our successful support of Catskill Regional Medical Center.

I’m very proud of everyone for their commitment to excellence and for making quality our number one priority. It is an honor to work for an organization with such amazing potential. I’m looking forward to another exciting year. We’re just getting started.