Tufts Medical Center and Lowell General Hospital today announced plans to form a new health system designed as an alternative model to leverage population health data. The new health system will foster collaboration between and among community-based and academic medical providers to effectively identify patient needs and manage the health of the communities they serve.
The organizations will align with a new parent company, led by Normand Deschene as Chief Executive Officer and Ellen Zane as Chairperson. Tufts MC, Lowell General and their physician groups will maintain local governance but will partner to create the scale needed to capitalize on population data management, efficiencies of group purchasing and the development of innovative services while assuring autonomy. The organizations will have equal representation on the parent company board.
The new system will unite organizations who share a demonstrated high quality, lower-cost approach to health care services and an established set of population health management practices and programs – a crucial aspect of the Affordable Care Act environment.
Lowell General Hospital and Tufts Medical Center have been recognized repeatedly in reports from the Attorney General’s Office and the Center for Health Information and Analysis for their ability to deliver high quality care with a lower cost structure, just the formula that legislators, business leaders and patients have been demanding to make care better and more affordable in Massachusetts.
The new system will leverage population health data and services already available through the Lowell General Hospital and New England Quality Care Alliance (NEQCA), a network of 1,800 physicians affiliated with Tufts Medical Center. This will support a cost-efficient and optimally effective approach to population health management, a method by which hospitals, doctors and other health care providers work together to improve patients’ health rather than simply treat episodes of disease. It is a critical component of health care reform. NEQCA and Lowell General Hospital have had significant success and are highly regarded for their innovations in this area.
“Physicians and hospitals are going to find this unique system attractive in that it provides a level of local control and collaboration between academic and community medicine that currently does not exist,” said Jeffrey Lasker, MD, President and CEO of NEQCA. “This new model has been designed to support the relationship between the doctor and patient and will allow us the opportunity to build on our demonstrated success in ensuring healthier outcomes for patients and limiting health care costs.”
