St. Bernards Healthcare is joining four other organizations in a collaborative effort to improve health care quality in the state, as well as to lower health care costs. The collaboration is called “The Partnership for a Healthy Arkansas.”
Chris Barber is president and chief executive officer of St. Bernards Healthcare and was elected vice chairman of the new organization. Barber says Arkansas leads the nation in obesity rates and the state ranks near the bottom of states in the rates of health outcomes, life expectancy, and immunization rates.
Barber says the news is not much better when it comes to the Delta region of the state.
“Specifically in northeast Arkansas, we are not performing well,” says Barber. “We have many challenges in the health of Arkansans, and that ranges in livability standards, social economic factors, education, employment, income, and family support. We are excited about this initiative, which is really a framework of working together to learn best practices from one another that really drives some meaningful change for the citizens of Arkansas.”
The partnership includes St. Bernards, Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Baptist Health, The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, and Washington Regional Medical System in Northwest Arkansas.
Barber says the healthcare collaboration has been formed to address the many healthcare challenges to help improve the overall health of Arkansans.
“We have been talking about the challenges and the changing dynamics of the healthcare landscape on the national level and also we have been looking at these variables in Arkansas. Instead of working independently, we wanted to see how we could work together to take evidence-based, best practices, learn from one another, and embed that to a broader region. We hope this will have a broad impact.”
Barber says the collaboration has been in the works since 2012. He says the collaboration will use a dedicated staff to help fund and achieve the common goal of efficient and effective care for patients.
“We will have a dedicated staff that is based out of Little Rock. Each partner is putting up proceeds for the operating budget. Everyone has a common goal; that being, how can we advance and improve overall care and deliver efficient care for the consumer.”
Examples of potential collaborate efforts include information technology, patient care management and coordination, and quality and financial data analysis. Barber explains how each partner will bring their unique skills to the program.
“Blue Cross understands the same needs and challenges that are in the state, because it affects a lot of their customer base. They understand it will take providers to really drive that activity in making changes in the state. They bring different elements to the equation, and that will be a valuable component in making this collaborative work.”
The partners work closely together to develop specific programs and strategies for the collaboration. St. Bernards works with UAMS and Washington Regional to develop family medicine residency training and other clinical programs such as family medicine and high-risk pregnancy. Barber says the partners in the collaboration will come together to develop the programs and choose which ones are more relevant for the patients in the area.
“I think there will be a global set of initiatives that the organization will look at collaboratively, and we will look at it to see how they can be implemented in Jonesboro and northeast Arkansas.”
“The Partnership for a Healthy Arkansas” is what’s known as a Shared Services Organization. Many healthcare systems across the America are turning to the Shared Services Organization model as a preferred way to lower costs and improve performance while remaining independent and community focused.
Barber says the collaboration in Arkansas is unique in that a payer, like Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield, is also involved in the partnership.
“We looked at North Carolina and a few other states that have a similar collaborative effort, but we are not aware of any that has the payer side as part of this. I think that is innovative and we are pleased to have Blue Cross and Blue Shield at the table.”
Lowering costs and improving healthcare are the outcomes Barber is hopeful this collaboration will bring to consumers in the state, especially in Northeast Arkansas. Barber shares how residents can benefit from the program.
“I think there is a lot of opportunity to improve the quality of care delivered in the state, and particularly in our region. We are also interested in improving the cost of care, the outcomes, and the many other aspects that come to the table when talking about care.”
More information about “A Partnership for a Healthy Arkansas” can be foundhere.
