Q&A: Daria Mason, Central Vermont Medical Center

Vermont Business Magazine, Dec 01, 2006

Daria Mason grew up in New York. She attended Fordham University in NYC, where she earned a BA in French Literature, then did graduate work at Concordia University Graduate School, Previously to coming to CVMC, she worked at Montreal General Hospital and the Douglas Hospital Center

She came to CVMC in 1977 and worked in several positions in sent senior or management, including as executive vice president in 1997 and president and CEO from November of 1997. She will be retiring in June 2007.

Her husband, an air traffic controller at Burlington Airport, is also retiring. She has two grown daughters, and lives with her husband in Berlin. She's held a number of positions in various health-related organizations, including with American College of Health Care Administrators, Central Vermont Economic Development Corporation, Central Vermont Home Health and Hospice, Northfield Savings Bank Corporator, Norwich University Board of Fellows, Nursing Workforce Research, Planning and Development Advisory Board, Vermont Association of Hospitals & Health Systems, Vermont Business Roundtable Board, Vermont Business Roundtable Health Care Task Force, Vermont Chamber of Commerce Board, Vermont Ethics Network, Vermont Health Care Association, Vermont Technology Council, and the Workforce Partnership. Robert Smith interviewed Mason in her office at CVMC.

VBM: Let's start with the hospital. How long has it been here?

Mason: Central Vermont Hospital was built in 1968 and it was the result of the merging of two former hospitals. They used to have a hospital in both Barre and Montpelier. In the 1940s the town fathers started to talk about regionalizing. Very progressively in those days they came together to merge into a regional facility. The two former buildings, which were turn of the century, vintage 1890s-1900, those two buildings were turned into long term care. So the buildings you see here were built in 1968 and the two former buildings were turned into nursing homes in 1970. That was also progressive because long term care and continuum of care wasn't something that was done traditionally.

VBM: Are they still long term care facilities?

Mason: They remained nursing homes for 20 years, and then we built a new nursing home here on campus, Woodridge Nursing Home, which is the result of the merging of those two facilities. The two original buildings, one became a Level 3 assisted facility under the auspices of the Housing Authority in Montpelier. Level 3 means you need some assistance, but not at the level of nursing home care. The other, in Barre, was rehabed and became a state office building.

So our roots go back a number of years. An interesting fact is that during the Civil War, one of the largest hospitals at the time was up on College Street, and it was basically formed for that period of time and then disbanded. It's an interesting piece of history to have a hospital that far back in central Vermont.

In 1968 the building was put up with the focus on inpatient care. In those days everybody was inpatient. You came through the doors, you got in the bed and you stayed there for three weeks. We used to have people in the halls, over 180 patients a day. Now our average census of overnight stays is about 50 patients, because most of our emphasis is on outpatient. So, in the late 1990s we saw this change as technology improved and care and intervention improved. So we went from a totally dominated inpatient system to now most of our revenue is outpatient.

VBM: How many beds do you have?

Mason: We are still licensed for 122 beds, but we don't use that full capacity.

We usually staff for about 90 beds. We do have to flex up and down, but the average runs around 50. In terms of outpatient visits, since the old days when we had very, very few, we've seen explosive growth. Procedures can be done on a walk-in basis. You come in the morning, get your procedure and go home.

As a result in this shift in health care through the outpatient services, in the late 1990s we started to work on the plans to reconfigure the building to accommodate that, and we filed a certificate of need to get permission to do that. We went through a period where we were turned down the first time, then we eventually got our Permission to do our protect the second time. So now we are in the midst of this renovation project to create on the first floor what we call a day hospital, that is, a place where people come in, get their lab work, get their endo, get their whatever-procedure, then go home. That will result in a smoother flow for everyone and a more effective use of our staff.

In addition, our 1968 surgical suite is being upgraded. In those days the minimum size was 400 square feet per room and now it's 600 square feet per room. There are a lot more cameras and technology in there now then there used to be. So surgery will be replaced. The birthing center, will become Family Centered Care. When the mother comes in the whole family can be part of it - labor, delivery, post-partum all in the same' room. We already do this kind of program, but we are doing the program in the old suite, so we're replacing the birthing suite.