Steven Roach

PHOTO/MATT VOLPINI

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By Emily Micucci

At 41, Marlborough Hospital President and CEO Steven Roach is younger than many of his fellow hospital administrators. But with a sharp focus on cost-saving measures and quality improvement, he's prepared to meet the formidable challenges facing the health care industry head on.

He came to Marlborough Hospital aware that some budget trimming was necessary, he said, as reimbursements from Medicare and Medicaid have gotten smaller while patient admissions have decreased. But he soon learned that the situation was more difficult than he had anticipated, and in January, there was a round of job cuts.

Roach said there was a “rapid drop” in patient volumes at hospitals across Massachusetts back in October. He thinks that was partially related to difficulty getting web-based health insurance exchanges live ahead of the federal universal health insurance mandate. But the worst may be behind for Marlborough Hospital.

“We have stabilized our volume trends to what we think is real in the current market,” Roach said.

Now Roach, a Littleton resident, has his sights set on the future. At his previous job as CEO of Steward Health Care-owned Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer, he set maximum emergency room wait time goals of 30 minutes to improve patient satisfaction and make operations more efficient. Roach said administrators at Marlborough Hospital are now in the process of setting similar goals.

Roach also has ideas for new programs at Marlborough Hospital. He said administrators are discussing the possibility of opening a new geriatric psych unit for patients 55 and older, as well as a new wound therapy program that would employ hyperbaric chambers, an increasingly popular service given the high incidence of diabetes in the aging population.

Roach noted that Marlborough Hospital is still in the early stages of exploring these programs, and any service must fit the community it serves. Roach said that's been a motivating factor in pursuing his career as a health care administrator, along with the fact that most of his family members work in the medical field.

“At the end of the day, you can really make a difference in any community by having a good hospital,” Roach said.

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MetroWest 10 To Watch 2014 - Steven Roach, Marlborough Hospital