Three Health Care Organizations Honored for Successful Hospital-Physician Alignment

WASHINGTON, Dec. 3, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The Advisory Board Company's Southwind program announced on Monday that it has recognized three top-performing health care provider organizations with national awards for successful physician alignment. 

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Southwind presented the following awards:

• Physician Alignment Award in Clinical Integration (CI): Dignity Health, for engaging more than 2,300 physicians to improve collaboration;
• Physician Alignment Award in Clinical Transformation: Adirondack Region Medical Home Pilot, for implementing advanced primary care across all health care providers in a region of New York; and
• Physician Alignment Award in Physician Practice Management: Lancaster General Health, for improving quality of care while saving more than $5.5 million by improving its medical group's revenue cycle and providing physicians access to automated performance reports. 

"When hospitals, health systems, and other providers begin making the transformation from volume-based to value-based care, no factor plays a more critical role in their success than the ability to align closely with physicians on cost and quality performance," said John Deane, CEO, Southwind, The Advisory Board Company's health care management and consulting services program.  "These three organizations are national leaders in executing key initiatives for an accountable care strategy: improving performance, raising quality, and reducing costs." 

Southwind Physician Alignment Award in Clinical Integration:  Dignity Health
In CI programs, a network of independent physicians collectively commits to collaborate with a hospital or health system to deliver improvements in quality and cost of care.  Dignity Health, headquartered in San Francisco, is one of the nation's five largest health care systems in the nation with 11,000 physicians across Arizona, California, and Nevada.  Dignity Health sought a model of care that would leverage local affiliations and foster physician leadership in each market, but would also align physicians with the system's overarching strategy to become regional, integrated care delivery systems. 

Working with Southwind, Dignity Health developed an executive strategy to foster and support local, physician-led efforts for CI programs.  Today, more than 2,300 physicians across the Dignity Health system participate in a local CI program. 

Dignity Health has CI program development under way in six of nine service areas, with the other three on pace to have CI within 12 to 18 months.  Three of the CI programs have made informal introductions to the Federal Trade Commission.

"Working with physicians to build clinically integrated networks is an important part of our commitment to modernizing the U.S. health care system," said Bruce Swartz, Senior Vice President of Physician Integration at Dignity Health.  "We are honored by this recognition for our efforts and we look forward to continuing our progress to make care more efficient and easier to navigate for both patients and physicians." 

Southwind Physician Alignment Award in Clinical Transformation:  Adirondack Region Medical Home Pilot
Clinical Transformation refers to a change in hospital-physician partnerships to support value-based care.  The Adirondack Region Medical Home Pilot is a collaboration between Community Providers, Inc. – comprised of CVPH (Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital) Medical Center and Elizabethtown Community Hospital – and Adirondack Health and Hudson Headwaters Health Network.  Together, these organizations worked with Southwind to help transform health care delivery across a region twice the size of Rhode Island by implementing an advanced primary care model.  

In partnership with the State of New York, the partner organizations formed a commissioned regional medical home pilot for 49 NCQA Level III-recognized patient centered medical homes and established the Adirondack Health Institute (AHI) as the managing entity of the pilot.  The effort has drawn participation from all providers across the community: five hospital systems, 33 primary care practices, and 225 primary care providers. 

All told, seven commercial health plans, Medicaid, and Medicare are participating in a new accountable payment model through AHI. 

"This new care delivery model has improved our physician recruitment and retention by ensuring a bright economic and clinical future for providers in the Adirondack region, and we are excited to have won this award for the pilot program," said Cathy Homkey, CEO, AHI.  "The patient-centered medical home model has brought great benefits for the community's patients, providers and payers." 

Southwind Physician Alignment Award in Physician Practice Management:  Lancaster General Health
Physician practice management refers to optimizing the performance of the health system-sponsored physician-employment enterprise.  Lancaster General Health (LG Health), a regional 631-bed not-for-profit health care system in Lancaster, Pa., engaged Southwind to help improve management of more than 170 physicians, including more than 100 employed by the system's multispecialty medical group. 

The initiative created a $5.5 million ongoing annual improvement in LG Health's revenue cycle.  The system instituted a physician compensation model based primarily on payer reimbursement for their services and that also included a 10% component for care quality.  In addition, LG Health now provides physicians with access to automated reports that track performance toward compensation goals and compare physicians' performance to the practice average. 

"The medical group we established back in the 1990s has emerged from the transformation initiative as a high-performing, aligned group that has achieved sustainability for our investment," said T. Raymond Foley M.D., A.G.A.F., President, Lancaster General Health Physicians.  "We are honored to receive this recognition for our work.  Our physician productivity is strong, and our professional fee revenue cycle has vastly improved its performance with increased automation." 

For more information on Southwind, please visit the Southwind award homepage of the Advisory.com website. 

About Dignity Health
Dignity Health, one of the nation's five largest health care systems, is a 16-state network of nearly 11,000 physicians, 56,000 employees, and more than 300 care centers, including hospitals, urgent and occupational care, imaging centers, home health, and primary care clinics.  Headquartered in San Francisco, Dignity Health is dedicated to providing compassionate, high-quality and affordable patient-centered care with special attention to the poor and underserved.  In 2011, Dignity Health provided $1.4 billion in charitable care and services.  For more information, please visit http://www.dignityhealth.org. 

About Adirondack Health Institute
The Adirondack Health Institute expands regional collaboration among health care and social service providers serving the Adirondack Region of New York state.  AHI addresses rapid changes and challenges to the health care industry by working with local providers and organizations through the coordination of planning, recruiting, clinical activities, outreach and oversight of grant-supported programs.  AHI is a joint venture of Adirondack Health, Community Providers, Inc., and Hudson Headwaters Health Network.  Its service area includes Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Fulton, Hamilton, Saratoga, Warren and Washington counties.  For more information, visit http://www.adirondackhealthinstitute.org. 

About Lancaster General Health
LG Health encompasses Lancaster General Hospital (LGH) and Women & Babies Hospital, including a Level III-B Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, and a network of outpatient centers and physician practices.  Thrice designated a Magnet hospital for nursing excellence, LGH has been recognized regionally and nationally for its cardiovascular, intensive care and orthopedic services.  Other entities include LG College of Nursing & Health Sciences, Lancaster Rehabilitation Hospital, VNA Community Care Services, LG Health Research Institute and Lancaster Cleft Palate Clinic.  In the summer of 2013, the new Ann B. Barshinger Cancer Institute will provide advanced technology and integration of cancer care under one roof.  As a member of the Penn Cancer Network, LG Health has access to the vast research and technological resources of one of the nation's foremost cancer centers.  For more information visit http://www.LancasterGeneral.org.  

About The Advisory Board Company
The Advisory Board Company is a global technology, research, and consulting firm partnering with 125,000 leaders in 3,700 organizations across health care and higher education. Through its innovative membership model, the firm collaborates with executives and their teams to elevate performance and solve their most pressing challenges.  The company provides strategic guidance, actionable insights, web-based software solutions, and comprehensive implementation and management services.  For more information about The Advisory Board Company, visit http://www.advisory.com. 

SOURCE The Advisory Board Company