Peninsula Regional Medical Center (PRMC) in Salisbury, Maryland, is sharpening its focus on managing all aspects of health, from wellness to complex care. That means raising the quality of care and access to care, improving care coordination across settings, bringing care to the most appropriate locations and in the most cost-effective manner, while applying this approach over a much longer period than just a single acute care hospital admission.
To help Peninsula Regional Medical Center achieve these changes, Karen Poisker, MSN, MBA, NEA-BC has taken on the role of Vice President for Population Health. In this new position, Poisker will direct and enhance initiatives for patient education, community-based wellness, reducing readmissions and chronic disease coaching and management. “This is a tremendous opportunity to help improve healthcare in our region, and I’m very excited about being able to participate in the development of what I believe will be a more integrated system of care that really puts the patient and their needs first,” said Poisker.
Poisker, who has been a member of the PRMC healthcare team for 39 years, is a registered nurse and has held a number of clinical and executive leadership roles during her career. She was most recently Peninsula Regional’s Vice President for Continuum and Ambulatory Services. Along with her new role, she will maintain responsibility for the Medical Center’s cardiovascular, oncology, orthopaedic and neurosurgery service lines.
Peninsula Regional will continue to develop a Population Health Management model that goes beyond treating just patients in need of hospital-based immediate care, and builds a strategy to focus on the needs of a population as a whole. “I am an Eastern Shoreman from birth, and I believe I understand many of our needs as a community as well as the cultural issues and financial barriers we have as a region. How we address these needs with our partners and other providers will determine how well we can improve the overall health status of our communities,” Poisker added.
A 2013 community health needs assessment indicated that Delmarva Peninsula residents were facing increasing rates of cancer, cardiovascular disease, stroke, diabetes and obesity. Using resources like Peninsula Regional’s Wagner Wellness Van, its network of family medicine offices and health pavilions and increased preventive testing and screening opportunities, PRMC’s new Population Health team will continue to work within communities and neighborhoods to eliminate care gaps, change health behaviors and educate people on getting healthy and staying that way.
“No one in our organization has been more in touch with our local communities and their needs than Karen, a Somerset County native,” added Cindy Lunsford, Executive Vice President/COO at Peninsula Regional Medical Center. “She has proven to be an exceptional leader and a dedicated and compassionate patient advocate at both the bedside and within the community.”
Other service lines that had been previously supervised by Poisker, including Women’s and Children’s, Mental Health and Hemodialysis, will now report to Mary Beth D’Amico, Peninsula Regional’s Vice President for Patient Care Services/Chief Nursing Officer, to allow for a greater focus on this new role.
“We will be much more visible in the community, partnering with other parties that have a similar mission and will be much more engaged with promoting health and wellness, providing preventative services and working together with others to offer services to people in the community who might otherwise not receive care. Instead of a fragmented system, you will see the development of health care options that really meet your needs in a much more coordinated and ‘personalized’ fashion no matter your health status or location,” added Poisker.
