Will Consolidation Change Health Care for the Better?
The Cleveland Clinic believes it will, especially when it produces better patient outcomes and improves care across a spectrum of services.
As part of the recent wave of hospital mergers and acquisitions designed to improve quality and lower costs, Cleveland Clinic recently entered a long-term strategic alliance with Community Health Systems (CHS), a for-profit provider that operates 135 hospitals nationwide. While the two organizations will remain independent, they will “both [remain] committed to discovering novel strategies to improve care, reduce costs, enhance access to health care services and develop new approaches to care delivery.”
In discussing the alliance, CEO and President of Cleveland Clinic, Delos M. Cosgrove, MD, notes that thriving in today’s health care environment will require new ways of doing things. He calls medicine a “team sport.”
We couldn’t agree more. All effective strategies that successfully remove obstacles to quality, affordable care should be on the table in today’s health care environment. The Cleveland Clinic’s consolidation with CHS will lower expenses and improve the quality of care by:
- Improving patient outcomes and reducing costs by creating a framework that enables physicians to share best practices while capturing, reporting and comparing data.
- Enhancing quality and data infrastructure by assessing CHS-affiliated hospitals and applying the expertise of the Cleveland Clinic’s Heart and Vascular Institute to related programs.
- Sharing best practices and creating synergies that encompass telemedicine initiatives, second opinion services for physicians and patients, complex care coordination and other areas in care and cost containment.
We look forward to watching the alliance between Cleveland Clinic and Community Health Systems as they continue to reframe health care.
Have you seen examples of successful collaborations that are improving access to care and/or reducing health care costs? Share them with us.
