2018 MEDICAL DIRECTORSHIPS AT THE WILLIAM W.
BACKUS HOSPITAL
Donna Romito, DO.
Director of Pulmonary Medicine
This is a very exciting time to become Director of Pulmonary
Medicine. I have been at the William W. Backus Hospital practicing
both pulmonary and critical care medicine for 20 years. How we
approach lung disease as a society has changed significantly in that
time. Our available therapies have expanded dramatically allowing
our patients with chronic lung disease to live longer. This challenges
the healthcare system to provide new strategies for a better quality
of life.
The Pulmonary Directorship at Backus Hospital currently
encompasses the outpatient Pulmonary Rehabilitation program, the
Pulmonary Function Lab and bronchoscopy services.
Backus Hospital has a long-standing outpatient Pulmonary
Rehabilitation program. The purpose of the program is to provide
patients with a better understanding of their disease, knowledge
about the correct use of the treatments, and techniques to improve
their physical condition. The goal is to have fewer exacerbations
of their disease, reduced readmission and total number of
hospitalizations. Over the years the shortcomings of the program
include lack of available space and personnel. An additional
drawback is current criteria which exclude some patient that would
benefit for the program. There are patients with lesser disease who
would also benefit from the education. Nonetheless, the program
has been graduating steadily larger numbers of patients.
I have an invested interest in general health and how nutrition,
exercise and sleep interact. This interaction is especially
important when factoring in pulmonary disease. These areas
require ongoing patient education and reinforcement. I have been
providing community educating through a local inpatient pulmonary
rehabilitation program where I have been Director since 2006.
New advances in pulmonary medicine at Backus include the
redesigned COPD program. This is an initiative across the
Hartford HealthCare system to change the focus of how we treat
12 THE OPEN JOURNAL
our COPD patients from admission to discharge and beyond. It
is a multidisciplinary team approach that is focusing on patient
education, streamlining their medication regimens, and establishing
outpatient support. The goal is to provide patients with the tools
to participate in their care and improve their level of functioning,
thereby improving quality of life and reducing hospitalizations.
In the last 3-5 years the bronchoscopy program at Backus Hospital
has expanded. We offer conventional fiberoptic bronchoscopy as
well as EBUS and Navigational bronchoscopies. These are being
done with increasing numbers every year. Unfortunately, the
bronchoscopy schedule has been constrained by the absence of
a dedicated bronchoscopy suite. This continues to be a work in
progress.
A high priority project will be a community asthma education
program. Asthma is often overlooked and education in the local
community is imperative. Nationally, asthma results in many days
lost from school for children and from the work force for adults, and
poorer quality of life.
Backus Hospital had an active thoracic surgery service for many
years, staffed by Dr. Paul Gerity, Dr. Michael Deren, Dr. William
Crawford and then Dr. Juan Escalon during the 1980-2000 era. Since
joining Hartford HealthCare, the service has vanished. According to
the tumor registry at Backus Hospital, 118 patients were diagnosed
with lung cancer and three patients with mesothelioma in 2017.
These number in addition to VATS procedures for pleural and
pericardial effusions, empyema and lung abscesses, lung nodules
of indeterminate etiology, should merit a strong thoracic surgery
presence at Backus Hospital. Rebuilding the thoracic surgery
needs to be a project between Backus Hospital administration and
Hartford HealthCare in the coming months.
I look forward to working with my colleagues to provide outstanding
services for our pulmonary patients in our community. n