GOOD HEALTH CARE DELIVERED SIMPLY
For patients at USC, change is taking the hassle out of health care-while raising the quality and responsiveness of the USC system substantially.
The changes are a result of nationwide efforts to optimize health care, bringing appropriate care to patients by the most economical means. Some of the changes are difficult to comprehend because the pace of change is rapid- and sometimes contentious. But the changes are real, permanent and they are having major effect upon academic health centers across the U.S.
Academic health centers are the fountainheads of medicine. Academic health centers, such as USC's Health Sciences Campus, are where the research that develops new treatments and cures takes place, and it is where the next generation of physicians and biomedical scientists are educated and trained. Research and teaching are expensive; a large, diversified faculty is essential to both missions, making rigid control of costs paramount. Cost containment and the need to attract new revenues are twin engines that drive the health care changes taking place at academic health centers, including USC.
Patients (and health care providers, too) might have some difficulty making sense of the alphabet soup of modern managed care, but two sets of initials are changing their lives for the better:
USC Care-Both a name and a phone number, USC Care is short for USC Care Medical Group, Inc., the non-profit organization that is the focal point for all USC patient care. As a phone number, it is 1-800-USC-CARE, the only number a patient or referring physician needs to know. Dialing that number puts the caller into a central system that takes the struggle out of appointment setting, record-keeping (and retrieval) and, soon, billing. One call leads to all of USC's hundreds of specialist and primary care physicians.
USC IPA-This growing organization brings USC within easy reach of millions in Southern California for the first time through a growing network of community-based physicians. USC IPA is short for USC University Affiliates Independent Physicians Association, Inc., a not-for-profit organization, which links more than 800 community physicians and 400 USC faculty physicians into a network that forms a bridge between a growing list of health care payer organizations-HMOs and insurance companies-and USC IPA physicians.
At USC Care, the change has been particularly rapid. Just last October, an Access Center opened, providing around-the-clock access to USC physicians via highly trained operators who listen to patients' needs, route the call to the appropriate physician and stay on the line to make sure the connection is made.
By next summer, USC Care will have completed the transition to a single point for registering all patient medical and financial transactions and providing a single statement, according to Jeffry Huffman, M.D., who is the chief executive officer and medical director of USC Care. "We have listened to our patients, solicited their advice, and found that what they want is good health care delivered simply," says Huffman. "A pet peeve is the multiplicity of forms and bills. We're taking that away."
And that kind of service is already attracting physicians in the community and their patients to USC, according to Sam Romeo, M.D., M.B.A., who heads the USC IPA.
"The Southern California market is exciting because of its sheer size-more than 10 million patients in our immediate area-and the rapidity at which change takes place," says Romeo. "This area was way ahead of the nation in embracing managed care when I arrived, and we're farther ahead now. That made establishing an IPA from scratch an imposing, and worthwhile task."
The USC IPA was to be audited for accreditation by the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC) in late August or early September. The AAAHC accredits HMOs and ambulatory care centers, including medical groups and surgery centers. Romeo points out that the USC IPA will be the first in the nation to be accredited.
Behind the scenes, many other changes are taking place at USC's Health Sciences Campus:
For patients, their family doctors and the organizations that pay the bills, the changes they can see are the ones that matter most. USC Care and USC IPA bring the promise of better health care, lower costs and simplicity to the fore-today.
Jeffry Huffman, M.D., M.H.A., is the president, chief executive officer and medical director of USC Care Medical Group, Inc./USC Physicians, associate vice president for health affairs, and associate professor, Department of Urology, USC School of Medicine.
Sam Romeo, M.D., M.B.A., is the president and chief executive officer of USC University Affiliates Independent Physicians Association, Inc., and senior associate dean for clinical affairs, USC School of Medicine