|
After more than 20 years with Excellus BlueCross BlueShield Dr. Pat Bomba has left her position as senior medical director for geriatrics and palliative care.
Dr. Bomba’s tenure with our health plan pre-dates her employment and dates back to the formation of the company. She originally served on the board of BlueCross BlueShield of the Rochester Area (BCBSRA) for more than a decade and chaired the board when BCBSRA merged with BCBS plans in Central New York and Utica-Watertown to become Excellus BlueCross BlueShield. She also served as Excellus BCBS’s first board chair.
Dr. Bomba’s leadership and service to our community has been unwavering for more than 40 years; she spent the first 20 years of her career in private clinical and academic practice and has spent the second half of her career in community practice, as she says, serving New York State as she has worked to improve end-of-life care, palliative care, advance care planning and elder abuse from a public health perspective. Her goals have always been to ensure that the most vulnerable patients receive compassionate care and treatment in line with their preferences.
With these goals in mind and with Excellus BCBS’s leadership, Dr. Bomba founded New York’s MOLST Program for our most seriously ill and frail patients, along with the Community Conversations on Compassionate Care (CCCC) to encourage early advance care planning discussions for people age 18 and older. Through Dr. Bomba’s leadership, New York is also a founding member of National POLST. In 2011 Dr. Bomba launched eMOLST to ensure quality end-of-life conversations and access to these critical medical orders 24/7. Over the years it is fair to say that hundreds of thousands of patients and families from across our state have benefitted from these programs.
Dr. Bomba has been recognized nationally and internationally for the critical work she has done nationally and for all that we have accomplished here in New York. She will be the first to say that she couldn’t have done it alone and that the credit also goes to the numerous community partners at health systems, professional associations, and in key leadership positions around our state who have worked so hard to improve end-of-life care, palliative care and advance care planning, in particular – knowing it’s not just what is best for patients and families but also in line with the care each of us would want to receive at the end of our lives.
We all have been incredibly privileged to work with Dr. Bomba and learn from her visionary leadership, dedication, and commitment to addressing a challenging public health problem in a way that is truly patient-centered.
While Dr. Bomba finishes her career with Excellus BCBS she will remain on New York’s MOLST Team as emeritus chair, she will continue to serve National POLST, and she will also continue some of her national work to improve advance care planning, palliative care and end-of-life care around the country.
Dr. Bomba is looking forward to enjoying time with her husband and family, especially her grandchildren. She looks forward to focusing on self-care, especially time at the beach and resuming her personal interests, particularly genealogy, digitizing family photos, preserving family stories, and gardening. Dr. Bomba plans to travel and is planning a trip to Poland to visit the home of her ancestors. She loves cooking and baking and looks forward to hosting visits from family and friends; she plans to compile a Three Generation cookbook in memory of her Mom “Babci” and beloved Son, John Sebastian and include Polish holiday traditions. She plans to write a book and to learn to play the piano.
If you would like to reach out to Dr. Bomba to personally congratulate her in her retirement and stay in touch, please connect with Meg (William.Griffiths@excellus.com) who will share Dr. Bomba’s personal email address.
|
