Five Questions With: Dr. Ann L. Potter

Dr. Ann Potter has joined Southcoast Health to serve as the new medical director of Southcoast Behavioral Health, a 120-bed psychiatric hospital in Dartmouth. / COURTESY SOUTHCOAST HEALTH
Dr. Ann Potter has joined Southcoast Health to serve as the new medical director of Southcoast Behavioral Health, a 120-bed psychiatric hospital in Dartmouth. / COURTESY SOUTHCOAST HEALTH

Dr. Ann L. Potter is the new medical director at Southcoast Behavioral Health, a 120-bed psychiatric hospital in Dartmouth that is part of Southcoast Health, serving patients in southeastern Massachusetts and parts of Rhode Island. Before joining Southcoast Behavioral Health, Potter worked at The Providence Center in Providence.

Potter earned her undergraduate degree from Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Mass., and her medical degree from Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine in Hershey, Pa. She interned at Faulkner Hospital in Boston and completed her residency programs at Beth Israel Hospital and Harvard Longwood Psychiatry, both in Boston. Potter spoke recently with Providence Business News about her new position at Southcoast Behavioral Health and the entity’s goals and objectives.

PBN: Tell us about Southcoast Behavioral Health. When it was established, what is its focus and approach to mental health?

POTTER: Southcoast Behavioral Health is a joint venture of Southcoast Health and Acadia Healthcare. Our new $30 million facility is a 120-bed inpatient psychiatric hospital that opened in August 2015. Three of our units are now open and can treat adults, ages 18 and older. In July, we will open our geriatric treatment unit and, in September, we will open our adolescent treatment unit. Treatment at Southcoast is founded in the philosophy that all patients should receive treatment with kindness, compassion, dignity, respect and hope. Our staff, consisting of board-certified psychiatrists, licensed clinical social workers, registered nurses, recreational therapists and mental health technicians, are dedicated to providing the compassionate and comprehensive care that lasting recovery requires.

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PBN: Who are the typical patients that Southcoast Behavioral Health serves, where do they come from and what are their diagnoses and typical lengths of stay?

POTTER: Most of our admissions come from the local acute-care hospitals – St. Luke’s Hospital in New Bedford, Tobey Hospital in Wareham and Charlton Memorial Hospital in Fall River. We do accept admissions from other referral sources, including hospitals on Cape Cod and in the Boston area.

We treat individuals with a range of diagnoses, including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, anxiety, panic disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder and substance use, including alcohol, opioids and other drugs.

The average length of stay is approximately nine days. However, some admissions are shorter and some longer, depending on the needs of the patient.

PBN: What kinds of resources does Southcoast Health provide patients who are healthy enough to be discharged from the hospital environment of Southcoast Behavioral Health but not healthy enough to thrive without additional supports?

POTTER: Our case managers work closely with resources in the community and develop individualized treatment plans for each patient so that his or her transition to the community is smooth and supports his or her recovery. We make referrals to partial hospital programs, residential treatment programs, community mental health centers, behavioral health clinics and individual practitioners in the community.

PBN: Your experience has been serving patients at The Providence Center, which is a community-based behavioral health center. How will your experiences there inform or alter your approach to serving patients in a hospital setting?

POTTER: My experience at The Providence Center gave me a broad understanding of the issues related to caring for individuals in the community. Coordination of care with a patient’s community-based providers (psychiatrists, primary care physicians and therapists) and family members is so important. We have created policies and procedures in our hospital that ensure appropriate coordination of care with community providers.

PBN: With ever-increasing pressures on health care providers to reduce expenses, what challenges do you envision facing in the next months and years to provide high-quality inpatient psychiatric care at a price point that satisfies insurance companies’ expectations?

POTTER: For years, physicians and hospitals have been faced with the challenge of providing quality patient care while containing costs. Our first priority is patient safety, and we will always provide a safe discharge plan for patients. Southcoast Behavioral Health’s multidisciplinary team works closely with each patient under our care to create an individualized treatment plan. Our largest challenge probably is finding community-based treatment for individuals in our area, given the significant shortage of psychiatrists in this region.

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