Lee Penrose, COO for acute care delivery with St. Joseph Hoag Health in Irvine, Calif., discusses why the health system has made moving procedures traditionally done in inpatient settings into the outpatient setting a core part of its strategy going forward.
"Many hospital systems view ambulatory care as separate services from inpatient care, but at St. Joseph Hoag Health, we see outpatient services as a critical component of our integrated network of care. Connecting our care and services is part of our overall approach to achieve our goal of more accessible care, which for us means making care more convenient and meeting patients where they are. New technologies and advances in medicine have historically driven services from the inpatient hospital setting to the outpatient environment. We embrace this trend and see it as a significant part of the solution to create affordability in healthcare.
As an integrated health system, our network of services includes everything from primary care to intensive inpatient care. We leverage this connectivity to track and improve patient outcomes for services from treating the common cold to treatment for heart attack and everything in between. Our robust database of healthcare data combined with our exceptional roster of clinical expertise comes together to help people take a proactive approach to their health in their everyday lives. With advancements in technology and medicine, we are seeing more procedures in an outpatient setting that historically would have been done exclusively in the hospital. We embrace this trend as an enabler of affordability.
The establishment of outpatient centers has been a key to the development of our network. We are continually re-thinking our approach to outpatient service offerings. Outpatient surgery is expanding and outpatient surgery centers are proven to be a more efficient place to care for patients. So we are continually looking for ways to expand access to affordable outpatient centers. Similarly, our urgent care network is expanding as an in-between point of care for those who can't wait for a primary care visit, but don't need to visit the emergency room either. Along those same lines, we’ve also placed a major emphasis on wellness, opening Wellness Corners in workplaces and retail locations across the county that offer those services most needed in their neighborhoods."
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