High-flying Miriam chief <br>adds challenge at T.F. Green

Dr. Kathleen C. Hittner has distinguished herself on many fronts – in her medical specialty, as a leader in her profession, and especially at the helm of The Miriam Hospital, which has won awards for its cardiovascular services and for nursing excellence under her leadership, stayed in the black while most others lost money, and embarked on a major expansion and upgrade.

Last month, Gov. Donald L. Carcieri asked her to chair the board of the R.I. Airport Corporation, on which she already served.

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PBN: [The Miriam Hospital’s] new clinical services building, the first phase of a major expansion and upgrade, is almost done.
HITTNER: We move in in June. … The first floor will be an entirely new radiology department [and] a new cafeteria with windows. … The second floor will be replacing 10 operating rooms and all the supports they need … areas to prepare patients, areas to recover patients. And then the third floor will be 36 private rooms and private bathrooms.

PBN: You have a very large and prestigious cardiac program. What have you done with it?
HITTNER: It’s been [part] of The Miriam Hospital really since it began. One of the earliest open-heart procedures was done at Miriam. My [initiative] has been to expand services for some patients who weren’t getting the service I thought they should get, particularly women. … We found women were receiving less cardiac services than men, but were actually dying more often than men … so we instituted a women’s cardiac program. … In addition, our stroke center … has also paid a lot of attention to women.
PBN: What else are you doing in cardiac care?
HITTNER: We’re looking at other techniques to advance surgical procedures and also to do procedures in the cath lab in a minimally invasive way to replace surgeries that were more invasive in the past.

PBN: For example?
HITTNER: Our cardiologists in the cath lab can close atrial septal defects [sometimes referred to as “holes” in the heart]. We’re looking at procedures in the future to actually replace valves, which have been done at other institutions. The noninvasive technology is really advancing.

PBN: What other projects are you working on?
HITTNER: A major initiative is focusing on surgery. … The new operating rooms are going to be state of the art, with all the latest equipment available to our surgeons, so … we’ve been building up our surgery program and trying to attract some surgeons to The Miriam Hospital to bring minimally invasive surgery to a higher level. We do minimally invasive surgery now, but we’re looking to do more procedures … [in areas such as] bariatric surgery … and we’re interviewing non-cardiac thoracic surgeons who’d do minimally invasive surgeries on the lungs and the esophagus. … And we also have the surgical robot, which is particularly used right now for radical prostatectomy for prostate cancer.

PBN: When you started your expansion, Miriam had some difficulties with the neighborhood. How do you feel about your relationship with the neighbors now?
HITTNER: I guess we would have to ask the neighbors, and actually we did a survey recently and it was pretty good. I think we’ve improved a great deal by open communication. We also hired a full-time community liaison, and that has helped us tremendously. … I would say our biggest problem is parking. … We’re going to have a company come in and conduct a whole parking study and give us some advice.

PBN: Changing gears, what appeals to you about leading the Airport Corporation board?
HITTNER: The airport is such a big economic engine for the state that I feel it’s part of my obligation as a citizen to do the most that I can, and I feel I can do a lot in this area. I do believe there are a lot of parallels with the job that I have as far as [customer satisfaction] – certainly that’s true with our passengers and dealing with the airlines. We’re doing great renovations now which should be done within a year … and we’ll be opening new concessions, both food and shops, which I think our customers are going to be very happy with. … We have also done extensive work to try to decrease the wait times for going through security, and that has been very successful.

PBN: Have you come to a sense of normalcy in terms of addressing security while having a smooth, comfortable operation?
HITTNER: That’s what we’re trying to do with those renovations, so yes, I think so. The TSA rules and regulations we really don’t have much influence over, but … how our facility is, we can help with that.

PBN: How concerned are you about the latest impact report on the T.F. Green expansion? It’s not like anybody didn’t know that houses and businesses would be displaced and wetlands would be affected, but do you think there will be peace on this issue at some point?
HITTNER: I think it’s going to take some time. … We still have a lot of work to be done, many different aspects to look at, and many different considerations, not the least of which are financial considerations. I think that it’s too early to get upset about any one plan, any one option. Rather, I think we need to weigh in on what will be the least disruptive options. … There have been no decisions made anyway concerning this.