REGIONAL NEWS:
Barnes-jewish consolidates clinics in new tower and other news
ST. LOUIS, Mo.— Barnes-jewish Hospital has opened a new 12-story facility built to consolidate five clinics that cater to lowincome patients with limited access to healthcare. The clinics, previously in an older building on the St. Louis campus of Washington University Medical Center, were expected to have completed the transfer by March 26, according to a news release. The new Barnes-jewish Center for Outpatient Health was designed and built to house clinics for primary care, obstetrics and gynecology, psychiatry, and surgical and wound care, as well as one dedicated to specialties that include neurology, neurosurgery, urology and orthopedic surgery. The building also provides all of the clinics with access to radiology, laboratory and other ancillary services. “Because all of the clinics will be better integrated with more uniform processes, such as registration and appointment scheduling, patients will experience more timely communication among providers and better coordination of cross-disciplinary care,” Dr. John Lynch, Barnes-jewish Hospital’s chief medical officer, said in the release. Solar panels on the structure are capable of providing lighting to one floor during peak production hours, according to the release. The 322,380square-foot building includes administrative offices for the 1,150-bed hospital, St. Louis Children’s Hospital, the Siteman Cancer Center, and their parent, BJC Healthcare. The $98.5 million cost of the project was covered by BJC Healthcare’s capital fund, a spokeswoman said. MENOMONEE FALLS, Wis.—
Seven Upper Midwest hospitals and health systems and a medical college in Milwaukee have banded together in a “virtual healthcare network.” Quality Health Solutions will allow the members to pursue population-based health initiatives and new health insurance products, according to a news release. The for-profit organization is using data-aggregation software from Intelligent Healthcare, Santa Monica, Calif., to analyze the members’ electronic health records and other data sources to see if healthcare is being efficiently coordinated across the network. This spring, Quality Health Solutions plans to launch the QHS Health Network, which will contract directly with self-insured employers, as well as offer insurance through traditional commercial insurers as a fully insured product, and will offer “a broad choice of healthcare systems as well as competitive pricing and coordinated care.” The joint owners, who pay equal amounts to support QHS’ base budget, are: Agnesian Healthcare, Fond Du Lac, Wis.; Aspirus, Wausau, Wis.; Bellin Health Systems, Green Bay, Wis.; Centegra Health System, Mchenry, Ill.; Columbia St. Mary’s and Medical College of Wisconsin, both Milwaukee; Froedtert Health, Menomonee Falls; and Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare, Glendale, Wis. “we are creating opportunities for them to reduce costs … and helping them to collectively orient toward an accountable-care future, which we all see as inevitable,” Froedtert Health Executive Vice President Peter Pruessing, CEO of Quality Health Solutions, said in an interview.