TAMC celebrates EMHS top 100 ranking
PRESQUE ISLE — The Aroostook Medical Center and 10 other member organizations that make up Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems (EMHS) are celebrating after learning the system has made the IMS annual list of the top 100 integrated health networks in the nation.
After an extensive review of 592 health systems across the country, EMHS landed at number 78. This is the first time the regional health care system serving all of northern, central and eastern Maine has appeared on the top 100 list.
“This is wonderful news and validation of the great efforts on the part of so many, both here at TAMC and across our system,” said Sylvia Getman, president and chief executive officer of TAMC and senior vice president of EMHS. “As we all strive diligently to ‘reinvent’ how we deliver health care to best serve the needs of the people and communities we serve, this recognition indicates we are making positive change, providing great health care, and improving lives.”
IMS, the organization ranking the top 100, is a leading global provider of health care information, services and technology. For more than 55 years, the company has surveyed a provider’s ability to operate as a unified organization in nine categories: integration, integrated technology, contractual capabilities, outpatient utilization, continuum of care, financial stability, services and access, hospital utilization and physician services.
“The list does not distinguish between urban and rural systems, however, in carefully reviewing the list, we discovered there are nine other substantially rural systems that placed higher than EMHS. So, we can say with confidence and pride that EMHS is among the top 10 rural health systems in America,” said EMHS president and CEO Michelle Hood.
That assessment is particularly noteworthy as it provides the framework to measure the success of EMHS relating to the system’s vision, set forth in 2007, to be the best rural health care system in America by 2012. To reach this milestone, a process was established to measure success, and system-wide goals were set around many initiatives, including employee retention, well workplace programs, improving patient satisfaction, physician practice quality, and chronic disease care management.
“While we know we still have much work to do, we’re proud to say that we’ve realized incredible success through this work, with many of our goals being achieved or surpassed,” said Hood.
EMHS’ vision to be the best has been a driving force across the system with each member organization devoting considerable time and energy to realizing the vision. According to both Getman and Hood, dedication to shared values, strategic priorities, and the communities served by TAMC and other EMHS member organizations will continue to drive both the local member organizations and system to achieve great things together and be a national model for health care delivery in the future.
One of the ways TAMC and EMHS are leading in this regard is by serving as one of 32 pioneer accountable care organizations in the nation. The pilot program is intended to improve the coordination, efficiency, effectiveness, quality and cost of health care.
While accountable care organizations are intended to improve the care delivered to Medicare patients, the model is transforming the overall health care delivery system. Currently within EMHS, approximately 8,000 people, including nearly 3,000 Aroostook County residents, are participating in this model. These people receive Medicare benefits and see primary care providers who are participating.
“We know that more services and higher spending don’t always result in better outcomes — in fact, often exactly the opposite results,” said Getman. “Through accountable care, the structure of care delivery shifts from how much a health care provider does to how well the patient does.”
