Community hospitals form partnership to save money

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(Host) Three Vermont community hospitals have formed a partnership that they hope will save them money on contracts and purchases.

As VPR’s Ross Sneyd reports, they also hope it will prepare them for whatever health care changes Washington eventually adopts.

(Sneyd) None of the hospitals is big but each of them is important to the communities it serves.

So they’re all determined to position themselves to be around long after whatever changes come from Washington’s latest effort to drive down costs.

(Woodin) "I’m hoping that it positions us."

(Sneyd) Joe Woodin is president of Gifford Medical Center in Randolph. His hospital has formed a collaborative with Copley Hospital in Morrisville and Porter Medical Center in Middlebury.

(Woodin) "I think there’s a lot of ways in which we wait for things to happen. We’re trying to be a little bit more proactive and progressive in looking at ways to manage our operations more efficiently and look at the issue of cost."

(Sneyd) The three hospitals formed the Vermont Hospital Shared Services Network.

They’ll use the new nonprofit to jointly negotiate purchases and contracts, or recruit physicians and other health care workers.

(Woodin) "This down to … perhaps group negotiating and helping us get a better return for some of our investments. … Maybe we become a little like a Costco when we buy IV bags and solutions."

(Sneyd) The idea really isn’t new. Many groups of hospitals around the country have gotten together for similar purposes.

But here’s the difference. It’s usually a large, dominant hospital that organizes the effort and smaller hospitals like Gifford, Copley and Porter are junior partners.

Health analyst Jeanne Keller says the Vermont hospitals might be onto something in the era of big changes in the health care system.

Keller says a bill was introduced in the Legislature this past year to study whether Vermont has too many hospitals.

(Keller) "So these three are trying to position themselves to be as cost effective as they can and to show that they’re not dragging down our health care system."

(Sneyd) She says a big part of the national health care debate is also all about creating efficiencies and saving money.

(Keller) "And so these really small hospitals have to prove themselves if Washington gets serious about budgets."

(Sneyd) The CEOs at Gifford, Porter and Copley say they’re aware that may be coming. So they hope their new collaborative can show cost-conscious state and federal governments that their hospitals are doing their part.

For VPR News, I’m Ross Sneyd.

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