Private outpatient care is a burgeoning field for doctors who enjoy running their own practices. Over time, these doctors end up managing their staffs and taking care of finances. Wearing multiple hats allows doctors to keep close tabs on their office activities, but it can also detract from spending more face time with their patients and improving patient outcomes.
Stamford Hospital now seeks to provide a solution for solo practitioners.
Through an affiliate network of 103 doctors and 360 professional support staff, Stamford Hospital provides doctors with administrative relief so physicians can maximize time with their patients. Through Stamford Health Integrated Practices, or SHIP, doctors can pay a fee to join the hospital”™s network and take advantage of its resources, tools and trained staff.
A new brick-and-mortar SHIP center opens next year in Stamford.
One private-practice family doctor, Rod Acosta, has found joining SHIP to be a resourceful way to manage his time and private practice. Acosta, a family medicine doctor at Stamford Hospital who received his medical degree at the University of Texas, was recently named CEO of SHIP. He had been running a small outpatient care operation for about eight years before joining SHIP in 2010. He is a founding member and partner of Stamford Family Medicine, which consists of five family doctors on the fourth floor of the Tully Health Center at Stamford Hospital. His practice receives administrative, technical and medical support through SHIP.
“The whole transition of care is covered by SHIP,” said Acosta. “SHIP provides new computer systems with new software programs. We hire all the staff and train them. We also take over the leases. All we want you as the physician to do is focus on providing high-quality care and access to care, which means hours that are beneficial to patients.”
A perk of joining the network is having access to electronic medical records. One challenge private outpatient care physicians face is access to health records that aren”™t readily available among doctors in different networks. Through SHIP”™s software, all physicians within the network have access to patients”™ diagnostics and medical history.
“So let”™s say for example, you had diabetes, and I was your primary care doctor,” Acosta said. “So I”™m seeing you and all of a sudden you have a thyroid problem. And I say I want you to see a doctor who can give me a second opinion. And the doctor can see all my notes and all the labs we ever did. And I can see all her notes.”
SHIP is building out an online portal that will allow patients in Stamford Hospital”™s outpatient care networks to quickly and easily book appointments, review labs, access their X-ray exams and expedite communication with doctors via email.
“We want you to be able to access your own information,” Acosta said. “We want you to be able to make your own appointment by just logging on and asking for an appointment. The reality is that young people live by their thumbs and they just do everything through the Internet.”
Acosta said SHIP also serves those who aren”™t as tech savvy. By allowing SHIP to manage a physician”™s daily administrative tasks, doctors have more time for frequent visits by the elderly or chronic pain patients who often require walk-in services.
“We want to make sure that patients come to our offices and they don”™t end up in an urgent care center because they”™re open an extra hour than we are,” Acosta said. “Physicians need to have open gaps in their schedule so that if somebody calls the same day they can see them the same day, and they”™re not waiting a whole week to visit.”
SHIP was created as a partnership of local primary care physicians, healthcare specialists and hospital staff to coordinate and deliver care in Fairfield and Westchester counties. It has grown nearly 20 percent year over year since it started in 2009.
SHIP plans to roll out an employment plan that allows doctors from independent private practices who are not interested in completely signing on with the network to keep their own infrastructure and staff while taking advantage of the network of health care technologies and medical services that are interconnected through the partnership.
“We”™ll say to the doctors, you don”™t have to join us, but we can say you pay us a fee and we can do your HR, we can do your electronic medical records, we”™ll contract with insurance companies and you can keep your independence,” Acosta said. “Doctors are very independent and they value their autonomy, but we know they still need help.”
Stamford Hospital recently signed a lease to move SHIP”™s affiliated physicians from offices throughout its the region to 292 Long Ridge Road in Stamford. The 46,000-square-foot outpatient building is slated to open in fall 2015. The building will house doctors focusing on primary care, cardiology, endocrinology, neurology, obstetrics, gynecology and orthopedics as well as diagnostic imaging labs and a walk-in center.
