Moreover, private practice physicians nationwide have been affected by an increased scrutiny on costs. Some doctors are giving up their practices in favor of working for hospitals, as the expense of maintaining an independent practice has surged in recent years.
The impetus for these changes is the Affordable Care Act’s focus on improving access and bending the cost curve downward while providing quality health care for more people than ever before. And, while the ACA’s orientation and mandates were directed toward adult populations, the pediatric realm also has been substantively impacted.
As the steward of Arizona’s largest children’s hospital and network of pediatric care, my role is to ensure that Phoenix Children’s provides the best possible medical care, while fulfilling our vision to be the premier pediatric network in the Southwest.
With this in mind, we are constantly evaluating our care delivery system, seeking innovative ways to provide exceptional quality while keeping costs in check. One such dynamic approach is our Phoenix Children’s Care Network.
A clinically integrated organization (CIO) – and the first of its kind in pediatric care – PCCN draws from foundational principles of accountable care; it is designed to improve quality and contain costs through efficiency, transparency and a focus on population health management.
CIOs are gaining traction in the adult health community, but we realized early on that the same principles in the adult model could achieve successful outcomes in pediatrics, as well. Since its rollout two years ago, PCCN has expanded to more than 800 providers, including half of all independent pediatricians in the region as well as the vast majority of pediatric subspecialists.
A large part of our success is due to our care delivery model, which is focused on value-based contracting as opposed to the standard fee-for-service. Tracking and reporting are built right into the model, as are physician communication, collaboration and a shared commitment to continuous improvement. Moreover, compensation is directly aligned with outcomes.
Understanding the CIO premise that measurement is critical to performance, we charged our practitioners with developing the benchmarks against which they’re measured. Physician and network partners committed to 14 primary care measures and 34 specialist metrics encompassing safety, quality and transparency outcomes. Reimbursement rates are now tied to these measures, holding us all to a high standard of quality outcomes at a lower cost.
In adopting this methodology, we believed that PCCN could transform the delivery of pediatric medicine by expanding access to care and unifying independent providers and hospitals around a shared commitment. Early results are promising; we expect PCCN will become a model for children’s hospitals nationwide.
The CIO model is changing traditional views of how pediatric providers should balance cost and care considerations. PCCN truly is the realization of our own vision to deliver high-value, cost-effective care across our entire system, including Phoenix Children’s Hospital, our primary and specialty care service sites, urgent care sites and surgery centers. We believe this model will transform the delivery of world-class care to patients and their families in our region and across the country.
Robert L. Meyer is president and chief executive officer of Phoenix Children’s Hospital. Meyer joined the Hospital in 2003, assuming the leadership of current operations and future growth for Phoenix Children’s Hospital, Phoenix Children’s Medical Group and the Phoenix Children’s Hospital Foundation.
