Clinical Integration is primary care physicians, physician specialists and hospitals working together, using proven protocols and measures, to improve patient care. Health Partners physicians, along with Mount Carmel Health System, will engage in physician-directed quality improvement with the focus on improving patient and clinical outcomes along with reducing the cost of health care. These efforts and their outcomes will be shared with health plans, employers and the community, allowing Health Partners physicians and hospitals to demonstrate and be rewarded for exceptional patient care.

Clinical Integration Is:

• A physician led and driven quality improvement program.
• Primary care physicians, physician specialists and hospitals working together to demonstrate and improve clinical and quality outcomes.
• Collaboration among independent doctors and hospitals to increase quality and efficiency of patient care.
• Adoption of a comprehensive and reportable program of inpatient and ambulatory quality improvement that allows physicians to set organizational benchmarks for quality, which provides resources to physicians so they can excel in care delivery.
• Sharing of our physicians' and hospitals' quality track records with health plans, employers and patients, thus making Health Partners the preferred physician-hospital network in Central Ohio.
• Building of an infrastructure that supports quality and enables joint negotiations when beneficial to the parties.
• Physicians and hospitals receiving financial rewards for providing high quality care.

We should become Clinically Integrated in order to:

• Continually improve the quality of care our patients receive.
• Demonstrate and prove to health plans, employers, the government and patients that we deliver high-quality and cost-effective care.
• Reverse the tide of declining physician and hospital reimbursement.

We become Clinically Integrated through:

• Physician leadership and involvement in Health Partners programs that demonstrate high quality and positive clinical outcomes in the physician practice and hospital settings.
• Physician leadership and involvement in health plan quality programs that demonstrate quality and improve care processes and clinical outcomes in a cost-effective manner. This demonstrates our willingness to work with our health plan partners to improve care.
• Physician leadership and participation in National Committee on Quality Assurance (NCQA) Physician Recognition Programs and other national and local physician and quality programs which demonstrate that Health Partner physician members provide care at or above national standards.
• Mount Carmel Health System and physicians forming partnerships in quality health plan programs which provide benefits to both physicians and hospitals.

Clinical Integration is not:

• A loss of physician or practice autonomy
• A hospital or government mandate
• A means to "weed out bad physicians"
• A means to force physicians to purchase an Electronic Medical Record (EMR)
• "Cookbook medicine"
• Messenger model contracting

More Information

For more information on Clinical Integration, please read Health Partners' 2009 Commitment To Quality Report.