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Mercy Health

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Streamlining the new-hire process

 

Mercy Health, based in Springfield, Mo., discusses how it overhauled its procedures for bringing on new healthcare employees to save time and money.

To read the article on this in HealthLeaders Media, please hit this link.

 Christopher Bos, Mercy’s HR chief, noted:

We are in a competitive market for healthcare co-workers. The faster we can get workers in here and get them to work, the faster they can see our culture and experience it, and the greater the chance they’re going to stay.”

To read an interview with him in HealthLeaders Media, please hit this link.


Uber pilot program coordinates patients’ transportation

uber

An Uber driver at work.

An Uber pilot program  at Mercy Health may offer hope for a cheaper, patient-centered way to move patients.

Hospitals & Health Networks summarizes: “The program involves a patient-centered portal that’s integrated with patient health records, allowing hospital transport coordinators to schedule and manage on-demand rides from one centralized location. Mercy Health System’s three acute care hospitals and their PACE, all-inclusive care program for the elderly in Pennsylvania are part of the initial pilot program. And the Philadelphia-area system already sees this as an opportunity to provide more individualized care, while driving down costs.

“’The key is to be able to define what an individual persons needs … and make it as easy as possible to be able to be engaged in their health care and well-being,’ says Gary Zimmer, senior vice president of Mercy and CEO of the system’s Clinically Integrated Network division.”

‘The portal, designed by the health care transportation company Circulation, integrates patient information into the transportation dashboard to view individual details; for instance, whether the patient needs a wheelchair-accessible vehicle, or other accommodations.”

To read the full Hospitals & Health Networks article, please hit this link.

 

 

 


2 big Ohio systems merging their ACOs

 

Two Ohio health systems will jointly contract for accountable care with health plans under a newly created clinically integrated network with broad geographic reach in the Buckeye State.

Cincinnati-based Mercy Health, formerly Catholic Health Partners, and Akron-based Summa Health said that each system’s Accountable Care Organization would join a new organization, Advanced Health Select — a clinically integrated network.

Other large regional systems, such as, in Michigan, Ascension Health and Trinity Health,  have been working to broaden their contracting in similar ways

The idea in the Ohio case is to build on ACOs’ success in the Medicare Shared Savings Program and the  systems’  total of  $100 million invested in the last four years in data analytics, information technology and care coordination.


3 Missouri systems in new collaboration

 

Chesterfield, Mo.-based Mercy Health is joining two other Missouri-based health systems to create a multi-state provider network. 

The new collaborative of Mercy, University of Missouri Healthcare and St. Joseph-based Mosaic Life Care is called MPact Health.

The partners predictably said they plan  to  deliver high quality care at a low cost and will work together to share best practices.

 

The St. Louis Post Dispatch says the  trio are already working on certain initiatives, including expanding telemedicine to “underserved areas of Missouri, creating a database to support population health and working with payers to offer ‘Innovative network options’ that are also low-cost for patients. ”

They also say  that they’ll explore developing “a clinically integrated network of employed, independent and private practice physicians focused on improving healthcare quality and outcomes.”

 

 


In population health, ‘stay in your lanes’

 

 

 

Jamahal C. Boyd Sr., director of multicultural competence and inclusion at Cincinnati-based Mercy Health, cautions providers  to stay in their “respective lanes” to maintain efficiency and effectiveness in population-health efforts.

” In an attempt to innovate, some providers and systems are trying to respond to the diverse needs of their patient population that extend far beyond what takes place in the exam room.

“Not that this isn’t a good idea or approach, but when what providers are planning to do falls outside of the scope of what they do best, or outside of their experience and/or expertise, it becomes challenging. Oftentimes, this can cause providers to over-promise and under-deliver, which can lead to patient dissatisfaction, loss of credibility or consumer confusion.”

“If a provider or system is an expert at providing the best healthcare or specialty care for its patient population, then that is its lane. But providers can also innovate and effectively meet the peripheral needs of a patient by establishing effective partnerships and leveraging current relationships with those who have expertise in specialized services or service areas in the communities they serve.”

 

 


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