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GE Healthcare, Jefferson Health join forces in risk-sharing relationship

August 4, 2017
Life sciences

Under an eight-year risk-sharing relationship, GE Healthcare and Jefferson Health are looking to generate as much as $1 billion in efficiencies through the use of data analytics and other information technologies.

Analytics are increasingly important as healthcare organizations like Jefferson Health as they embrace quality improvement initiatives and seek to improve overall productivity by turning data into actionable insights.

Jefferson Health, based in Philadelphia, has an extensive care network throughout Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, including nine hospitals and 35 outpatient and urgent care locations, serving more than 100,000 inpatients, 373,000 emergency patients and 2.2 million outpatients annually.

With such a large footprint, Jefferson Health—with the help of GE Healthcare—has targeted inefficiencies and rising costs with the goal of integrating and optimizing healthcare delivery for patients, while providing smarter and more affordable world-class care.

“We have a unique opportunity to become the region’s leader in delivering even greater value to our patients, offering them high-quality care at a lower cost, wrapped around an exceptional patient care experience,” said Stephen Klasko, MD, president and CEO of Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson Health.

“With the industry knowledge and global expertise of GE Healthcare, we will gain significant efficiencies that will enable us to reinvest in initiatives that improve the lives of those we care for,” Klasko added.

At the heart of the collaboration is a focus on removing redundancies and maximizing sourcing efficiencies across operational and clinical workflows that can be directed toward services that best meet patient needs.

According to Helen Stewart, managing principal of GE Healthcare Partners, staff from both organizations are working side-by-side to get a thorough understanding of operations and processes, leveraging analytics to turn data into proficiency. In particular, she sees great potential for data to help improve patient outcomes in tandem with cost reduction.

“GE will be bringing in, as part of the strategic integration, things like data analytics,” Stewart says. “We’re a very data-driven organization. We’ll be helping Jefferson with some simulation modeling tools that will help them see their data and connect the data together in meaningful ways to drive operational, clinical and performance improvements.”

Achieving as much as $1 billion in efficiencies “is a big number,” acknowledges Stewart. “The goal of a billion dollars is a combination of growth and savings. In all cases, our agreement is aligned so that we work through quality improvements, patient experience and drive improvements in the financials aligned with the mission of the organization.”

During the past six to nine months, she says GE Healthcare has gotten to know Jefferson Health’s business very well. Stewart notes that both organizations have agreed to critical milestones that must be achieved throughout the eight-year risk-sharing relationship and that a portion of GE Healthcare’s fees are contingent on reaching certain integration goals.

“We have to deliver the outcome or we don’t get paid for delivering the work—so, yes, there are significant risks as part of this,” she observes.

The relationship with Jefferson Health is one of only five such long-term relationships that GE Healthcare has with U.S. provider organizations, but it is the largest such initiative, according to Stewart.

“It’s a newer model, which is why there are only a handful of relationships like this in the market,” she adds. “We’ve only been in the market doing this for about a year and a half,” notes Stewart, emphasizing that it’s going to take such partnerships to make the organizational changes necessary truly transform how care is delivered.

“This is an opportunity to work together and do something really unique,” she concludes.

By Greg Slabodkin

Source: Health Data Management

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