Asheville, N.C.-based Mission Health has tapped GE Healthcare for decade-long partnership meant to realize cost efficiencies and quality improvements. It will start with a focus on two areas: improving use of imaging tests and working toward safer transitions of care.
"This is an innovative, collaborative, outcomes-driven relationship focused on developing new, transformational ways of caring for patients at Mission Health and nationwide," said Ronald A. Paulus, MD, president and CEO, Mission Health, in a statement. "Our goal is to improve our margin, drive system-wide efficiency and deliver an exceptional, transparent experience for every patient, family and team member."
Officials say the company's work with the Mission Health system, which includes a 730 bed tertiary-quaternary hospital, is the result of investment by GE Healthcare Partners, the management consulting arm of GE Healthcare.
Together, Mission Health and GE Healthcare will co-develop, pilot and deploy transformational healthcare solutions focused initially on two areas: optimizing imaging and smoothing patient care transitions.
One initial goal will be to use GE's radiology expertise to help patients make more informed choices about imaging tests based on variables such as comparative costs and wait times. Mission Health will also work to streamline the process of getting patients to the right imaging modality at the right place system-wide.
The collaboration will also work on better care transitions, deploying predictive modeling and other analytics tools to ensure care is delivered in the most appropriate settings. Mission Health is replacing its bedside monitoring and telemetry at all seven facilities, for instance, with a new monitoring platform that can ensure all equipment is interconnected and that data is readily available to clinicians.
GE Healthcare will also assume responsibility for servicing diagnostic and biomedical equipment at Mission Health.
Both organizations hope the combination of Mission Health's "learning laboratory" with GE Healthcare's technology and consulting services will lead to big dividends. The goal is to save $40 million over the course of the agreement.
Paulus said he expects the innovations developed through the partnership will be "scalable and applicable to other similar healthcare systems."
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