MDNews - Greater Boston

Deschene and his colleagues have been busy making connections. Circle Health has more than 4,000 caregivers and support staff at the hospital, Lowell Community Health Center, Visiting Nurse Association of Greater Lowell, the Greater Lowell Health Alliance, and doctors' offices in Lowell and several surrounding communities. Deschene says a top priority has been to "improve handoffs" through a variety of initiatives, including a shared electronic health records (EHR) system, a range of in-house laboratory and diagnostic services such as MRI, and smooth transitions from primary care doctors to specialists. About 85 percent of Circle Health doctors are using the new EHR system. "Having all of a patient's medical records, including test results, readily available at the touch of a keyboard is efficient and convenient for patients," says Deschene. "It's all available in physicians' offices. We've reduced the hassle factor, and we won't rest until there is 100 percent connectivity." The Providence College and University of Minnesota graduate says Circle Health is creating an integrated care model designed to maximize patient satisfaction. "We want to be able to break down the barriers," he says, noting Circle Health has established partnerships with several worldclass specialty programs at Boston hospitals. "When we refer patients to Boston, we want that to be seamless as well," Deschene says. "We don't want our patients to feel they have been handed off to an entirely different experience." Circle Health's Boston-based partners include Tufts Medical Center, the Floating Hospital for Children, Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. "We've been able to pick and choose from some of the best programs," Deschene says. Physicians have played a key role in forming Circle Health's vision and integration initiatives. Doctors at the hospital, community health center and affiliated primary care practices have helped provide coordinated care. "They have been the architects of many of the changes we've put in place," says Deschene. "If we're going to be successful, the doctors, not the hospital, have to drive the process." With the national move away from the fee-for-service model in U.S. health care, Deschene says a top goal of "the process" underway at Circle Health is to identify opportunities to improve the quality of care. "We really are pushing new models of care," he says, noting the emerging emphasis on wellness and health promotion is "the right thing to do for our patients." The Lowell Sun's inaugural Man of the Year in 2012 says preventing expensive medical interventions is in the best interests of all healthcare organizations and their care providers: "We all have an incentive to save money, but we also have a shared incentive to keep our patients healthy." If Circle Health and other healthcare providers can improve quality of care through initiatives such as better follow-up with patients, healthy lifestyle promotion and improved patient medication compliance, there will be benefits for everyone in the healthcare system from patients to providers to employers to insurance companies. "We want to work on lowering premiums," the CEO says. "We want to reverse the trend." As he looks to the future, Deschene sees opportunities for growth and cost savings at Circle Health in 2014. "The long-term opportunity for real cost savings is to make sure the resources that are used are the right ones," he says, noting Circle Health is fostering wellness programs, such as obesity prevention and smoking cessation, among its employees and in the community. "We see this as a long-term effort to move the needle of health in the area and reduce the costs of health care in the process," he says. Growth and creating new connections are top priorities for Circle Health. Recent expansion beyond the hospital walls has included enhanced services at Lowell General Hospital North Andover and a new Circle Health physician practice, Primary Care of the Andovers. A new Circle Health facility set to open in Westford in 2014 will feature an urgent care center, primary care physicians and OB/GYN services. "Our ability to be successful is going to involve being a comprehensive provider and serving a bigger geographic area," he says. "We don't want everyone to have to come to one centralized location. We want to have facilities in the communities we serve." I The CEO Edition I MD NEWS Greater Boston |9

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