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Providence Health & Services’ Physician Alliance Draws Significant Interest

Nearly 670 physicians representing a wide array of specialties have joined the new Providence Partners for Health an alliance between area doctors and Providence Health & Services aimed at improving quality and controlling healthcare costs in the Valley region. Providence and its five area hospitals, including three in the Valley, had aimed initially to attract 500 physicians. Instead, a total of 668 physicians across the Los Angeles area from the South Bay to the San Fernando, Santa Clarita and Conejo valleys were admitted to the new alliance this week, the hospital announced today. “The response has been astounding,” Kerry Carmody, chief operating officer for Providence Health & Services, Southern California, said in a statement. “The interest from physicians shows they are poised to meet the challenges of the changing healthcare landscape and they are eager to partner with their colleagues and with Providence to improve quality for their patients and the communities they serve while reducing costs.” PPH was created in response to healthcare reform. The idea is to give doctors and hospitals an opportunity to share clinical data—and thereby avoid repeating tests; to improve quality; and to create efficiencies that cut costs. Area physicians were given the opportunity to participate in the joint venture alliance with an initial investment. The joint venture is owned equally by member physicians. Providence Southern California. Physicians on staff at one or more of the five Providence medical centers in the region will lead and govern the alliance Doctors who join the PPH have agreed to share their data on quality, receive feedback on performance from their physician colleagues and demonstrate adherence to PPH-developed care guidelines with the ultimate goal of improving outcomes for patients. To support physician members, Providence has developed what will be a shared information technology infrastructure, a data warehouse and an electronic medical records system. PPH physicians who don’t already have an electronic medical records system will be given the EMR at a discounted rate. This will allow doctors and the five Providence hospitals to share medical records data. Providence said the partnership positions the system for success in the current reform-based healthcare environment, including participation in pay-for-performance, narrow networks and value-based purchasing programs, which incentivize and reward providers for demonstrating improved quality and controlled healthcare costs. Providence said interest in the joint venture, which was announced in October, far exceeded its expectations, surpassing an initial goal to recruit 250 physicians for membership in PPH by the first of the year.

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