A Medical Device Daily

Seeking to create “greater value” for their patients and communities, several Michigan healthcare provider organizations have formed Value Health Partners (Grand Rapids).

The coalition’s members said their focus will involve improving value through clinical quality and best practices, community health improvement programs to address health disparities for “at-risk” populations, and advocacy to represent a variety of Michigan communities on policy issues.

“Value Health Partners is a collaborative initiative to leverage the strengths of eight different organizations that each has unique services and patient populations,” said Joseph Wasserman, chairman of the board for Value Health Partners and president/CEO of Lakeland HealthCare (St. Joseph). “Through a coordinated effort we believe we can provide greater value to our patients and families, and the communities we serve. There is much we can accomplish, given our shared expertise and resources as well as the wealth of experience each organization has acquired over the years.

“There are many avenues to pursue together. We have decided to focus on those areas that offer significant opportunities,” said Wasserman. “For example, in terms of community health improvement, we will evaluate community health data and current programs to help each organization determine what will have the greatest impact and which programs can be replicated in other communities.”

He said that “rigorous measures and proven programs” will be used. “In addition, by building a database across all of our communities, we can begin to evaluate trends and health outcomes of a much larger population for disease management of conditions such as diabetes.”

Besides Lakeland, participating organizations include Bronson Healthcare Group (Kalamazoo), Covenant HealthCare (Saginaw), Foote Health System (Jackson), Munson Healthcare (Traverse City), Northern Michigan Regional Hospital (Petoskey), Sparrow Health System (Lansing) and Spectrum Health (Grand Rapids).

The participants said they expect Value Health Partners to result in “improved access and quality care for patients, as well as the ability to better control costs.” It also plans to optimize the performance of member organizations by sharing best practices and clinical quality metrics. In addition, the organizations will combine efforts to “represent the concerns of a broad cross-section of communities to address Michigan and federal government policy and funding issues.”

“As healthcare changes, being part of this collaboration will help our organizations develop and implement a standard of care that better serves our patients and community,” said Richard Breon, vice chair of the Value Health Partners board and president/CEO, of Spectrum Health.

Mary Kay Kempker-VanDriel will serve as president of the group. Formerly director of Spectrum Health’s Healthier Communities department, she has nearly 30 years of experience in collaborative healthcare efforts and community health improvement.