Fall General Medical Staff Meeting Update

The fall 2012 WellStar General Medical Staff meeting was held Wednesday evening, Oct. 17, 2012, at the Cobb Galleria Centre. More than 200 physicians and advanced practice professionals (APPs) from our five hospitals were in attendance.  For those of you who were unable to attend due to scheduling conflicts, the highlights from the various senior leaders’ strategic updates are as follows:

WellStar Connect (EPIC):  Jon Morris, M.D., Senior Vice President & Chief Information Officer and Murphy Townsend M.D., WellStar Connect Lead Physician Champion

1. WellStar's implementation of the EpicCare electronic medical record (EMR), titled WellStar Connect, will replace all WellStar inpatient and ambulatory clinical information technology systems by the end of CY 2014. 
2. Our investment in this single patient, single record system will improve patient safety and satisfaction by improving and promoting access to clinical data for both patients and providers.
3. Physicians will play a critical role in assuring we understand how to optimally configure these applications.
4. Optimal implementation will require mandated training and universal adoption by all clinicians in all venues of care.

Implications of Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act (PPACA): Reynold Jennings,       President & CEO

1. WellStar is actively pursuing both local and regional collaborative efforts to ensure our future success.
2. Georgia’s political scene will impact WellStar, both on the Medicaid funding issue and on the uncertainty of Certificate of Need (CON).
3. WellStar senior leadership has initiated rapid action teams referred to Accelerated Results Teams (ART) to oversee key initiatives.
   
4. Physician Engagement and Integration: Robert Jansen, M.D., Executive Vice President, WellStar Medical Group (WMG) President & Chief Administrative Medical Officer
5. We have 10 service lines at present, each lead by a dyad consisting of an administrative vice president and a physician leader(s).
6. Currently, service line focus is on growth opportunities and development of quality initiatives.
7. In the future, service lines will focus on providing value to our patients and improving coordination of care across the continuum.
8. Future success will depend on seamless collaboration between all stakeholders; primary care physicians, specialists, service lines, WMG, private physicians and hospital medical staffs.

Accountable Care: Jim Budzinski, Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer

1. WellStar Health Network (WHN) was approved by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services as a Medicare Shared Savings Accountable Care Organization (ACO), effective July 1, 2012.
2. For the 2011 baseline period, our ACO was assigned 36,560 beneficiaries with approximately $346,513,905 total yearly spend. This was almost evenly distributed between hospital, physician and pharmacy costs.
3. The WHN has already initiated population management components of patient identification and risk stratification.
4. This fall, WellStar will roll out an Independent Practice Association (IPA) as a physician-driven organization of both WMG and private practice providers to provide a venue for payment innovation to support population management.

 Safety and Quality: Marcia Delk, M.D., Senior Vice President, Safety & Quality and           Credentialing & Chief Safety Officer

1. In our journey to provide world-class healthcare, WellStar has targeted to be within the Premier top decile in outcomes by 2020.
2. WellStar already is realizing gains in the areas of length of stay, readmissions, mortality, complications and cost/case.
3. Successful WellStar Connect (Epic) implementation and adoption of evidence-based medicine, along with other initiatives, will be key drivers to achieve this goal by 2020.

Acute Care Management: Candice Saunders, Executive Vice President & WellStar  Kennestone Hospital President

1. A multi-hospital team of presidents, operational leaders and physicians will focus on patient centered care and quality outcomes.
2. Our care delivery model will be repositioned from volume-based to value-based.
3. Value-based purchasing (VBP) and public-reported programs promote patient experience as measured by HCAHPS.

 External Growth: Mike Graue, Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer

1. We will be changing our approach from REACTIVE to PROACTIVE.
2. Growth will be focused on acquiring/expanding high margin services that are relatively                                    easy to develop.

Once again, thank you to the physicians and APPs who were able to attend in person. WellStar is actively repositioning itself for success in the near-term as well as in the long-term, despite the outcome of the election or whether the PPACA is upheld or modified. WellStar values our physicians and other direct care partners, both WMG and affiliated, as we serve our patients and communities.
We fully understand that our physicians have limited time. Therefore, our job is to obtain, analyze and codify data, plus best practices, and to make meetings efficient and productive.