Healthcare CEO shares New Jersey successes with world leaders

BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA – OCTOBER 2018 – Brian Gragnolati, president and CEO of Atlantic Health System, shared success stories from New Jersey with international health care leaders at the 42^nd World Hospital Congress, held October 10-12 in Brisbane, Australia.

On Thursday, October 11, Gragnolati joined a panel of esteemed colleagues representing the United States, including Rick Pollack, president and CEO, American Hospital Association; David Olson, chairman, American College of Healthcare Executives and senior vice president of external relations and chief strategy officer, Froedtert Health; Nancy Agee, board chair, American Hospital Association and president and CEO, Carilion Clinic; and Eugene Woods, immediate past chair, American Hospital Association and president and CEO, Atrium Health, on a panel titled “Partnering and leading in our communities: hospitals as change agents - lessons from the USA.”

Gragnolati discussed the essential role of partnerships in addressing the affordability of health care services within the community, and showcased many of the successful outcomes experienced by Atlantic Health System in working collaboratively to improve patients’ health and wellness.

Specifically, Gragnolati explained how Atlantic Health System’s journey to value-based care was led by its physicians, particularly through its accountable care organizations (ACOs), the Atlantic ACO, Optimus Healthcare Partners and Healthcare Quality Partners. Together, the ACOs have saved the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services $98 million and received $41 million in shared savings.

“More importantly, they allow us to use data in new ways, such as predictive analytics, identifying gaps, annual wellness reminders, and trend analysis, and help health care providers care better for their patients and help patients care better for themselves,” Gragnolati said.

Gragnolati also discussed how the Atlantic Alliance encourages collaboration between physicians regardless of their system affiliation or experience with risk-based reimbursement. Through the Alliance, a network of 2,500 physicians with a proven track record for value can now work freely with physicians outside Atlantic Health System to share best practices.

“Atlantic Alliance allows physicians to maintain autonomy while reducing their administrative responsibilities, so they can focus on caring for patients,” Gragnolati told the audience. “We are already hearing doctors say the process is returning joy to their practices.”

Turning toward research, Gragnolati discussed Atlantic Health System’s involvement in the PIER Consortium, along with five other health care systems. The network of physician-researchers improves efficiency for patients, sponsors and researchers, while bringing trials to a larger geography, reducing the need for patients to travel long distances for care.

“PIER addresses a critical need in the research community,” Gragnolati said. “With an estimated 80 percent of trials failing to finish on time, new treatments are slow-to-market, and patients often do not have access to the novel therapies they need.”

Gragnolati also highlighted the collaboration between Atlantic Health System and six other health care systems in the Healthcare Transformation Consortium (HTC). Together, the HTC selected a third party administrator to administer their self-insured plans to provide better coverage and higher quality for their health care systems’ 75,000 collective employees and dependents.

Gragnolati concluded by urging the assembled health care leaders to lead the charge in finding solutions to the complex issues facing the health care field, and most importantly, to work collaboratively.

“Health care has always been a team sport,” Gragnolati said. “And improving access, inclusion and affordability is a job for us all.”

To learn more about the World Healthcare Conference, visit: http://event.icebergevents.com...

About Atlantic Health System

Atlantic Health System, headquartered in Morristown, N.J., is an integrated health care delivery system powered by a workforce of more than 16,500 team members and 4,800 affiliated physicians dedicated to building healthier communities. The system serves a population of 5 million, with more than 400 sites of care, including six hospitals: Morristown Medical Center, Overlook Medical Center, Newton Medical Center, Chilton Medical Center, Hackettstown Medical Center and Goryeb Children’s Hospital.

Atlantic Health System provides care for the full continuum of health care needs including 11 urgent care centers, Atlantic Rehabilitation and Atlantic Home Care and Hospice. Facilitating the connection between these services on both land and air is the transportation fleet of Atlantic Mobile Health.

In addition to the employed workforce, Atlantic Alliance, a Clinically Integrated Network represents more than 2,500 health care providers throughout northern and central NJ. Atlantic Health System leads the Healthcare Transformation Consortium, a partnership of 7 regional hospitals and health systems dedicated to improving access and affordability and is a founding member of both the PIER Consortium – Partners in Innovation, Education, and Research – a streamlined clinical trial system that will expand access to groundbreaking research across 6 health systems in New Jersey and Pennsylvania and AllSpire Health Partners, a consortium of 5 leading health care organizations dedicated to serving patients, families and communities in New Jersey, New York, Maryland and Pennsylvania.

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