St. Elizabeth Healthcare and
TriHealth announced last month they have signed a letter of intent to establish Healthcare Solutions Network, a collaborative venture that enables the two organizations to more quickly achieve the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s “Triple Aim” goals of better health, better patient experience and lower costs.
While such an agreement is new to the Cincinnati area, nationally, a range of healthcare collaborations recently have been announced between organizations that want to work together but not merge.
“This is simply a way that organizations can work together on certain projects while remaining independent on others,” Joe Kelley, spokesperson for TriHealth, says. “The community benefits because these collaborations can be done relatively quickly and can start to deliver new services to employers and consumers more efficiently.”
Healthcare Solutions Network is a unique, regional health organization that brings together the physicians and hospitals of St. Elizabeth Healthcare and TriHealth—both of which are nationally recognized health systems. Healthcare Solutions Network will arrange for high-quality, individually tailored and coordinated care to patients in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana.
“We recognize health care is changing rapidly,” St. Elizabeth Healthcare CEO John Dubis says. “It’s imperative to be able to accelerate ways to streamline patient care, improve quality outcomes and help eliminate or lower unnecessary costs. This kind of innovative teamwork is needed to accomplish these goals.”
First year priorities include introducing a new Medicare Advantage product to the market for this exclusive network, creating a single network to enable employed physicians, independent physicians and hospitals to align to improve quality and outcomes under a common infrastructure and more.
Dubis and TriHealth CEO John Prout will be in charge of the Healthcare Solutions Network together, and both are promising reduced costs for health care.
“A shared infrastructure will increase value and reduce redundancies of tests and procedures by sharing information,” Prout says. “It will also help better coordinate care and improve outcomes.”
By Mike Sarason
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