Track 3
New Models of Physician/Hospital Collaboration

Hospitals must collaborate with clinicians and other care providers to identify areas in need of improvement, partner on the development of systems to spur improvement, and promote the tracking and reporting of progress over time. This track will explore strategies for engaging clinicians in systemic efforts to coordinate care delivery for improved quality and financial outcomes.

Thursday, July 24 • 4:00-5:15 pm
Clinical Integration: The Changing Policy Climate and What It Means for Care Coordination

Nicholas J. Wolter, MD, CEO, Billings Clinic, Billings, MT, member of the AHA Board of Trustees, and MedPAC Commissioner; Thomas Leary, former Commissioner, Federal Trade Commission and of Counsel, Hogan & Hartson, Washington, DC; and Pam Williams, Executive Director, Adventist Health Network, Hinsdale, IL Moderated by William D. Petasnick, CEO, Froedtert and Community Health, and chairman of the AHA Board of Trustees, Milwaukee, WI

Clinical integration is fundamental to the delivery of high quality, cost effective care. Yet, in today’s health care delivery system there are many forces that drive hospitals and physicians apart, including economics, changes in health care delivery, and outdated payment and regulatory requirements. Efforts have been underway to address these issues and to reduce the regulatory barriers to clinical integration. This session will highlight some of these efforts, focusing on how the policy climate is changing to increase opportunities for greater coordination of health care services and, ultimately high quality, cost effective care. In addition, this panel of experts will reference changes already occurring in the field, including the process one health care system used to create a clinically integrated physician-hospital organization.

Friday, July 25 • 10:30-11:45 am
Achieving Breakthrough Performance through Physician-Hospital Alignment: Kaiser Permanente’s Journey from Quality Strategy to Execution of Breakthrough Priorities

Alide Chase, Senior VP, Quality and Service, Kaiser Permanente, Oakland, CA; Lisa Schilling, RN, MPH, Sr. Director, Healthcare Performance Improvement and Execution Strategy, Kaiser Permanente, Oakland, CA; and Alan Whippy, MD, Medical Director of Quality and Safety, The Permanente Medical Group, Oakland, CA

Few argue that health care needs transformational change, yet many hospitals and health care organizations are struggling with exactly how to identify a solution. This session will focus on how Kaiser Permanente has pursued its journey to refine its quality strategy, align its board and operational leadership, and design an execution strategy that can help the health care delivery teams at the microsystem level achieve transformational change. You will learn about the challenges faced and strategies used to work collaboratively with physicians and leadership to design, test and deliver solutions that will achieve sustained, evidence-based performance throughout. After this session you will be able to describe the elements of a quality and performance improvement strategy that links board through front line efforts and identify tools that can be used to define problems and identify appropriate cross-cutting solutions that will result in breakthrough performance.

Saturday, July 26 • 10:15-11:30 am
Transforming Patient Care... and Reducing Costs in the Process

Suzanne Boyle, DNSc, RN, Vice President of Patient Care Services, New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell, New York, NY and Bill Ott, Senior Consultant, Numerof & Associates, Inc., St. Louis, MO

Faced with the financial and quality care pressures prevalent across the health care industry, a well-known academic health care system needed to simultaneously improve patient care and reduce cost in key service lines. This presentation will summarize the diagnostic approach taken, key changes made, and results that were achieved. Critical outcomes in this project include the potential savings of several million dollars due to sustainable patient throughput improvement and more efficient staff utilization. In addition, physicians became increasingly engaged in executing hospital and quality of care strategies. Patient care is now managed against a more predictive care path. Nurses and social workers are more productive and supported in roles that allow them to maximize their impact on quality patient care. This presentation will describe the challenges and keys to success in the change management process.

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