HJAR Sep/Oct 2019

DIALOGUE 14 SEP / OCT 2019 I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF ARKANSAS   Groundbreaking ceremony for a new stand-alone emergency department being built by Northwest Health in Fayetteville.“We look forward to opening this new service to meet the growing demand and expand care options here,” states Denten Park, Market CEO. to increased compensation, and our other operating costs continue to increase. Unfor- tunately, hospitals across the country are seeing significant degradation in reimburse- ments. Our inability to increase, or at a mini- mum, maintain our reimbursements puts us in a very difficult position when it comes to maintaining all the services we try to pro- vide to our community. Editor Is Northwest Health working on any mergers/acquisitions or partnerships? Park We have a hybrid medical staff, with both independent and employed provid- ers serving our patients. We work well with all of them. While a number of physicians already in our market have recently cho- sen to affiliate with Northwest Physicians, including both primary care providers and specialists, we don’t look at this as an acqui- sition model, but more a partnership. We are also proud of our partnerships with local schools. In particular, we work closely with programs at Bentonville and Springdale High Schools, helping students get exposure to health care careers, and even receiving college credit before grad- uating. It is part of developing our future work force. Finally, one of the more unique initiatives we have that distinguishes us in the region and the state is our CIN, or Clinically Inte- grated Network, and our ACO. Through the CIN, Northwest Health is moving towards a more collaborative way of providing care, and working with patients, providers, and payers to build a care system that coor- dinates the patient’s care across the com- munity. As you know, under value-based care models, providers are rewarded for helping patients accomplish three primary objectives: improve their health, reduce the effects and incidence of chronic disease, and live healthier lives in an evidence-based way. It refocuses the way providers are paid for care, since pay is based in part on whether the highest quality care is provided in the most appropriate setting at the right time. To help achieve these goals, Northwest Health founded Community Quality Alli- ance (formerly Northwest-Sparks Quality Alliance), one of the state’s first clinically integrated networks (CIN), in 2016, as well as a Medicare Shared Savings Program Accountable Care Organization (ACO) in 2018. Both our ACO and our CIN have been highly successful. They have helped improve care for our patients, saved both payers and patients money, and increased compensation for our physician partners. A few of the impressive achievements by this organization during the last year include: • Significant increases in screening rates for cancer (breast, colorectal, and cervical) • Reduced pharmacy costs by 4 percent by promoting use of generic medica- tions to providers and patients • Reduced avoidable ER visits by 50 percent Reducing avoidable visits is a key factor in reducing commercial health care costs. (CIN staff members call and talk with every patient they are contracted to manage fol- lowing an ER visit or inpatient admission to ensure appropriate follow-up care is received to prevent a return to the ER or a readmission.) Editor What are some other things North- west Health is working on that you are proud of? Park I am incredibly proud of the high qual- ity care and compassionate service our team members provide. A couple of exam- ples of which I amparticularly proud are the national recognition we have received as a Center of Excellence for bariatric surgery, and our recent accomplishment of designa- tion byThe Joint Commission as a Primary Stroke Center at both our Springdale and Bentonville campuses. Northwest Medical Center-Springdale, along with Roller Weight Loss & Advanced Surgery, has become the fifth center in the country to be named a Center of Excellence (COE) for bariatric surgery by the Employ- ers Centers of Excellence Network (ECEN). The qualifications for ECEN surgeons and medical centers are based on excellent outcomes, low complication rates, high