State Secretary Of Health And Human Services John Polanowicz
Matt Pilon
Polanowicz
The state's new secretary of health and human services has strong ties to Central Massachusetts. John Polanowicz worked within the UMass Memorial Health Care system for 13 years, first as vice president of operations at the medical center, then as president of Marlborough Hospital from 2003 to 2011, before he left to head St. Elizabeth's Medical Center in Brighton. He enters public life at a time when health care providers are undergoing a challenging transition mandated by state and federal laws. He took over for Dr. JudyAnn Bigby, who stepped down in the wake of two high-profile crises, including the arrest of a state drug lab chemist who is alleged to have doctored drug test results and tampered with evidence on thousands of criminal cases, and a meningitis outbreak stemming from steroids manufactured at the New England Compounding Center in Framingham.
What made you want to accept this position?
It's an opportunity to serve again for a governor that I like and respect, and one who I believe is going to make a number of significant changes over the next two years to really position Massachusetts as a leader both from an economic and a health perspective. (The opportunity) was really too good to turn down.
What do you see as the most critical public health issue facing the state?
It's less about a public health issue than it is about a public perception issue about the safety of our state and what the Department of Public Health's role in that is. The reality is, we already have a very safe system and processes in place. We need to do better at ensuring we're actually in compliance with all the regulations that are already out there. I think at some level it really is about restoring the public's confidence in our department and the people working there, who do want to make sure everything is as safe as possible for everybody.
You just mentioned restoring public confidence. DPH hit several bumps in the road during your predecessor's term. Can we expect policy reforms? What might they be?
From what I've seen so far, I think the policies, by and large, are there. There are some issues around our execution and I think what you will see … we're going to be making sure that we've got the systems and the people in place to make sure we're actually doing the things that we're supposed to do. We have the right regulation. It really is about our ability to monitor them. We need the leadership to provide the oversight that's appropriate.
It seems that technology will be crucial to health care cost reduction. What do you think about some of the technological advances that have happened at hospitals?
I look at technology in two different ways. I think technology with respect to health information is progressing tremendously. The big data model where we've got peoples' health information on a health exchange and that information is available to any provider on the exchange to know what the last visit was for, what meds the person was on, what the previous history is – that's going to allow us to provide better and more efficient care because we're not going to have to go back in and rerun all the tests that were just ran at another facility or rerun diagnostic imaging. The other technology question really is around the equipment and new pharmaceuticals and new medical devices. Perhaps the health policy commission can help us with this to take a measured look at things. Just because it's new, doesn't necessarily mean it's better. And I think we've run an industry for a long time on whatever is new must be better, and I think now we'll have to put some time energy and resources into determining whether or not it's helping provide more lower-cost and more effective care.
You're en route as we speak to Worcester Recovery Hospital, a $300 million, 320-bed facility that will be open soon. What are the benefits of this development?
I have not been back to WRH since when it used to be Worcester State Hospital. At one point at UMass, I had psychiatric services reporting to me. In talking to individuals in the Department of Mens Health, this really is the model of how we're going to provide better mental health services to the member of the commonwealth. It's the appropriate setting, it's got the right milieu and we're really going to be able to provide excellent care in a setting like this, in a nonantiquated facility. I think it's a model for where we're going to go."
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