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Care redesign/population health management is one of the three pillars of Partners' Strategic Initiatives, along with patient affordability and reputation/communications. Its goal is to improve patients' health by focusing on wellness and coordinated, team-based, patient-centered care.
Primary care and community health are at the heart of the commitment to care redesign and population health management. In this vein, Partners and Hallmark Health System (HHS) proposed an affiliation earlier this fall, which would also include investments in North Shore Medical Center (NSMC).
The plans for communities to the north involve realignment of some services at four hospitals: HHS's Lawrence Memorial Hospital in Medford and Melrose-Wakefield Hospital and NSMC's Salem and Union campuses. Coordinating the work of these hospitals will improve access to care, including mental health and substance abuse services, and deliver health care resources more effectively and efficiently.
Clinicians will be able to track quality and eliminate care redundancies, such as repeating procedures, which will help contain costs. Reorganizing resources among the four hospitals will focus appropriate attention on behavioral health services, improving access to care at a time when the state is losing much-needed capacity in mental health and substance abuse. Integrating care will enable more robust outpatient and short-stay inpatient care to be provided in community settings. Investing in primary care and community health hopes to bring dozens of new primary care physicians to the area, as well as bolster key initiatives of the region's community health centers.
This vision is consistent with Partners' proposed affiliation plans with South Shore Hospital in South Weymouth-investing in primary care and improving care coordination to better serve patients throughout communities in southeastern Massachusetts.
While these proposals undergo examination by state and federal regulators, Partners President and CEO Gary Gottlieb, MD, MBA, said: "We believe these are thoughtful and appropriate plans that will bring more coordinated, cost-effective and patient-centered care to people in the communities north and south of Boston during a transformational time in health care."