Coletta not afraid to launch changes at Kent

A FULL PLATE: Since becoming president and CEO of Kent Hospital four years ago, Sandra L. Coletta has taken on challenges that would fill an entire career. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY
A FULL PLATE: Since becoming president and CEO of Kent Hospital four years ago, Sandra L. Coletta has taken on challenges that would fill an entire career. / PBN PHOTO/RUPERT WHITELEY

Working with a brand-new hospital union and coming out on the positive side of an employee survey. Revamping an entire emergency department – an offshoot of a malpractice case. Establishing a breast health center. Creating an alliance with a major Boston hospital.
All that would be a lot to accomplish over many years, but Sandra L. Coletta did it in just four. Coletta, president and CEO of Kent Hospital in Warwick, took the job in 2008, after putting in 25 years at The Miriam Hospital and Lifespan. And for her efforts, Coletta was named an Industry Leader in the category of health care services.
“I’m very honored,” said Coletta, 53, a Rhode Island native. “I’m so grateful for the letters of support that led to the award and support from various parts of our medical community. It’s not just me, but the whole organization – this award recognizes all their accomplishments.”
To say Coletta hit the ground running is an understatement. Three weeks after she came aboard in 2008, nurses voted to unionize. Coletta had never worked in a union environment, but set about immediately to find the best way to keep everyone happy.
“We talked to everyone and found out they want what we all do – great patient care,” she said. “They’re a partner in that overall goal.”
She implemented employee involvement and engagement strategies that resulted in a 281 percent improvement in employee-survey results, she said.
Another major accomplishment was establishing the Michael J. Woods Institute, a component of a resolution to a malpractice case. In 2007, Woods, brother of actor and Rhode Island native James Woods, died of a heart attack in the emergency room after staffers allegedly ignored signs of the event. The hospital invested $1.25 million in the ER redesign, which resulted in a 67 percent increase in volume and an 80 percent cut in time from patient entry to doctor visit. The average wait time was two hours. Now it’s about 30 minutes.
The leadership of the institute is made up of an oversight panel, including a representative from the Woods family as well as external experts and hospital clinical leaders. A patient-safety officer, trained by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, coordinates the efforts on behalf of the institute on a daily basis, all of which, Coletta said, allows for “significant and creative change.”
Working in collaboration with the senior leadership of Women & Infants Hospital in Providence, Coletta established The Breast Health Center at Kent, which combines the expertise of clinicians from both hospitals. And new this year, the hospitalists at Kent are providing that care for patients at Women & Infants, which Coletta said “is a significant enhancement to their level of care.” (Women & Infants and Kent are both Care New England facilities.) She knows she cannot do it alone. Coletta is big on collaboration, bringing the best and brightest together from various entities for the good of patients. She recently established an alliance with Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston for programmatic collaboration in emergency medicine, cardiology and surgery, which she said is “another example of reaching out and finding how to connect our patients to the right and best resources.”
Last year, she adopted the Just Culture approach to performance management and accountability hospital-wide, and serves as spokesperson for the concept. The Texas-based initiative promotes open communication within an organization, while working within a system of accountability that supports safe behavioral choices among staff.
Kent Hospital, the second largest in the state, also operates the Wound Recovery and Hyperbaric Medicine Center, and the hospital’s hyperbaric medicine fellowship program is the only such one in the country to be accredited by the American Osteopathic Association.
And speaking of firsts, Coletta also led the effort to make Kent the first and only hospital in Rhode Island to eliminate ambulance diversion, which redirects ambulances to other hospitals due to high patient volume and strained medical resources.
She wasn’t slacking off while at The Miriam Hospital, either. There, she established the first robotic surgery program in Rhode Island. She also provided executive leadership to a major building project in June 2007, incorporating a new radiology department, operating rooms and 36 private patient rooms.
As if all that doesn’t keep her busy enough, she serves on a variety of boards, including Providence College, her and her husband’s alma mater, and devotes her charitable efforts to one cause a year.
And then there are the pets.
“Well, I have a normal dog, a grand-dog, a chinchilla, bearded dragon, rabbit, turtle, two parrots and a parakeet,” she laughed, adding she also has three grown children in Los Angeles, New York and Boston that she sees whenever possible. “That keeps me pretty busy.” •

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