- How Payers Can Improve HEDIS Quality Measure Performance
- Large Employers Aim to DRIVE the Expansion of Value-Based Care
- Can Healthcare Payers Inspire ACOs to Take on Two-Sided Risk?
Under the agreement, Boston Children’s is now a member of Cleveland Clinic’s care network, the first national-scale network of selected high value cardiovascular care providers for the purpose of contracting with employers and payers.
In the future, Boston Children’s and Cleveland Clinic intend to expand their services to include a number of other rare and complex pediatric conditions in order to ensure that patients can receive high-value, effective care for their conditions.
Leaders at Cleveland Clinic see such collaborative agreements as the next step in strategic care delivery.
“Teamwork in many forms is the next phase of American medicine. We’re finding new ways to combine our individual strengths for better patient care and higher value,” said Hani Najm, MD, chair of Pediatric and Congenital Heart Surgery at Cleveland Clinic.
Boston Children’s will have special status in the network and will participate in leadership of the pediatric program. Per the terms of the agreement, Boston’s Children’s also shares responsibilities that involve the establishment and management of best practices related to patient care, outcome measurement, quality reporting, and clinical research.
“During this time of increasing demand for value in the healthcare marketplace, teaming up with another renowned institution such as Cleveland Clinic provides a way for more patients from across the nation to access world-class specialized care,” added pediatric surgeon Steven J. Fishman, MD, president of Physician Organization and senior vice president of Access and Business Services at Boston Children’s. “This agreement offers high-quality healthcare while managing costs.”
Employers and families within the care networks already have access to exceptional care, as evidenced by the success of both health systems in delivering pediatric heart care.
Cleveland Clinic has performed more than 150 pediatric heart transplant surgeries since 1985. The hospital has also undertaken 8,331 pediatric outpatient visits, 7,114 echocardiograms and 438 catheterization procedures in 2016 alone.
Boston Children’s is recognized as one of the largest pediatric heart centers in the world and performed 6,881 cardiac surgeries, 7,607 catheterizations and 3,405 electrophysiology procedures over a five-year period. The hospital also conducted 23,547 echocardiograms and 25,272 clinic visits in 2016.
Combining healthcare services of two nationally-renowned health systems is expected to further enhance access to world-class pediatric heart care for employers and families.
“Boston Children’s is well-known for its commitment to providing high-quality patient outcomes, as are we,” said Lars Svensson, MD, chair of the Miller Family Heart & Vascular Institute. “This agreement will bring together two great institutions dedicated to improving pediatric cardiac surgery care.”
“With this relationship, we look forward to offering more families access to this world-class, complex care and to collaborating with the Boston Children’s team in order to continue to improve and innovate.”
By 