New partnership will enhance R.I. care
Health care is changing. It’s complicated and it’s going to keep changing. Health care is in the news daily. Questions abound in Washington, while answers are few. But Care New England remains focused on providing the highest quality care while fulfilling our mission to those we serve.
Readers are probably already aware of the outstanding resources Care New England offers. Women & Infants is a nationally recognized specialty hospital for the treatment of women and newborns. Butler Hospital constantly breaks new ground in behavioral health research, and leads the fight against opioid abuse. Warwick’s Kent Hospital is the largest community hospital in the state with 70,000 emergency department visits annually and now provides emergency angioplasty to patients in that region. Along with our VNA, The Providence Center, and Pawtucket’s Memorial Hospital, we address the spectrum of care and train our next generation of physicians, nurses and other health care providers.
So let me share how we are addressing change while seizing a critical moment of opportunity.
Recently, I had the pleasure of announcing our board unanimously chose to pursue an affiliation with Boston-based Partners HealthCare, parent of highly regarded academic medical centers including Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Mass General, McLean Hospital, which specializes in behavioral health, and an array of community and specialty hospitals, and a world class team of physicians, clinicians and staff.
Care New England has signed a letter of intent to negotiate exclusively to become part of Partners, working toward signing a definitive agreement by late summer. We have also signed a letter of intent with Prime Healthcare Foundation from California, for their acquisition of Memorial Hospital, while maintaining care there.
We should not understate the potential joining Partners represents for Rhode Island, for residents, patients, our providers, staff, and for advancing health care. I believe this announcement is similar in magnitude to General Electric’s decision to move its world headquarters to Boston.
Partners HealthCare is an international leader in clinical care, research, quality and teaching. This will preserve our valued academic relationships locally, particularly with Brown University, serving to strengthen the region’s place as a leader in medical training, research and clinical advancements.
I am also aware of concerns this might result in increasing costs and sending patients to Boston. On the issue of cost, this is controlled by Rhode Island’s cap on commercial reimbursement hospitals can receive, set by the Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner.
With regard to patient care, it’s best to simply point to our cardiology program overseen through an existing clinical affiliation with Brigham and Women’s Hospital. This program, started at Kent Hospital in 2009, has grown tremendously, offering complex services in congestive heart failure, electrophysiology, advanced heart failure and heart transplantation consultation. It includes programs designed for women’s cardiac health, advanced valve heart disease, telemedicine, Kent-based research trials — the first in 15 years — and implementation of emergency angioplasty in Warwick.
It is important to note that since Care New England first started working with the Brigham in 2009, we send only the most clinically complex patients to Boston for immediate treatment. Once stabilized, they are discharged back to their local, Rhode Island-based Brigham cardiologist or physician of the patient’s choosing.
Published data also supports the argument that care will remain local. In fiscal year 2016, the number of patients coming into Rhode Island for care continued to be more than those leaving to go to Massachusetts. Specific to cardiac surgery and other cardiac care, while some Rhode Island patients seeking care in Massachusetts do so in Boston, the majority seek care in and around Fall River, New Bedford and Attleboro.
We expanded our clinical affiliation with Brigham in 2014 from Kent Hospital to all of Care New England. Today, in addition to cardiology, we collaborate on vascular, thoracic and colorectal surgery. Butler Hospital and McLean also have a longstanding and collegial relationship resulting in advancing patient care.
Clearly, the Care New England and Partners relationship is growing stronger. This represents something unique, exciting, clinically important and good for all Rhode Islanders. You can be certain health care is changing. And so are we.
Dennis Keefe is president and CEO of Care New England.