For some hospital administrators, “patient centered care” is a theoretical model of care and one of the latest trends in a healthcare industry that remains largely centered on serving the needs of the organization and its systems. For Mary D. Berrocal, patient centered care is an effective model of care, but also a phrase that carries deep personal meaning, serving as a touchstone and succinctly summarizing the philosophy that drives her as she undertakes the direction of the Miami Veterans Administration Healthcare System. Patient-centered care is a passion for Berrocal, who assumed the leadership role at the Miami VA in February. “Patient centered care is my vision and our path to excellence,” she says. “All of our decision-making and problem-solving will focus on the best interests of our patients. Patient centered care means engaging and listening to the patients in order to identify and meet their needs, balancing the best interests of the patients with the best interests of the workforce.”
Within the VA Healthcare System, of course, patient-centered care is veteran-centered care, and Berrocal is exceptionally responsive to the needs and concerns of those who have served America. Her passion for the VA mission and her great respect and affection for Americas veterans permeates her speech as she describes how daily interaction with veterans inspires her. “The veterans have been there when our country needed them. Our vets give everything in their service and this is our way to serve them. I can talk to any veteran or POW, and each one of them has something to say that reaches me.”
There is nowhere Berrocal would rather be, she says, than serving the men and women who have “borne the battle,” protecting the nation through the military. She began her VA career in Human Resources and has devoted 28 years of her professional life to the VA, serving in a series of progressively advanced administrative positions that have taken her all over the U.S., to Gainesville, Florida; Clarksburg, West Virginia; Columbia, South Carolina and to Loma Linda and Los Angeles, where she most recently served as Associate Director for the vast 5-county, 945-bed VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System.
Berrocal is excited about both the Miami VA and the Miami region. With 2300 employees, 191 acute-care beds, multiple facilities and a 26-acre campus, the Miami VA is one of the largest, most complex facilities within the nations largest, most complex healthcare care system. The Miami VA cares for 56,000 South Florida veterans annually, and is a highly honored institution with affiliations to the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and Jackson Health System. “The Miami VA is a tertiary level healthcare system and provides general medical, surgical and psychiatric services as well as other specialties such as spinal cord injury rehabilitation in the VA system,” Berrocal says. “With many academic affiliations, we are a training center for medical residents, nursing students and students of many other healthcare professions. There are currently 85 active medical research projects here and numerous investigators in our healthcare system including Nobel Prize winner, Dr. Andrew Schally, among our investigators.”
With close collaborative relationships and geographic proximity to Jackson and the UM School of Medicine, Berrocal says the three institutions complement each other, creating a medical destination that is attracting those seeking the highest quality care and the most advanced treatment in every medical specialty. “The VA is the leader in many areas of healthcare,” she says. “We measure ourselves constantly; we benchmark our performance against the best and often we are the best.” That level of quality is validated by the Miami VAs selection as recipient of two highly prestigious awards, the 2007 Governors Sterling Award and the 2005 and 2006 Robert W. Carey Performance Excellence Award. In 2007, the Miami VA received the highest honor awarded within the VA system, the Robert W. Carey Trophy Award
As for Miami, Berrocal feels at home here. The Puerto Rico native enjoys the weather, the warm, caring people and the diversity. “Miami is a gateway to America, and being Hispanic and bilingual, I feel that I can reach out to all veterans here, including Hispanic vets.” Berrocal aims to increase the number of vets that are served at the Miami VA. Among her challenges, she names outreach getting the word out to veterans and the public about the excellence of the Miami VA medical center and the community outpatient clinics. “The VA has an image as a large bureaucratic system but this is an outdated image. There has been a whole shift away from that and we need to publicize the wonderful things that we do here.”
“When we support the family, we are supporting the vet, and research shows that family support affects speed of recovery. We continue to learn about new challenges for the vets coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan with symptoms such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). This knowledge helps us to be better prepared to treat them. Part of our mission is to educate the general public, so they have a full understanding and appreciation for the sacrifices endured by our vets and their families. We are vigorously educating our doctors and other health care professionals to ensure that we provide the best care anywhere.”
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