Becker's Hospital Review

30 POPULATION HEALTH 30 CEO/STRATEGY Ascension, Adventist Health System JV slashes outpatient sites by 50% By Alyssa Rege A rlington Heights, Ill.-based Amita Health, the joint operating company created through the merger of St. Louis-based As- cension and Altamonte Springs, Fla.-based Adventist Health System subsidiaries, revealed plans to cut the number of outpatient care sites in half, according to Crain's Chicago Business. Amita Health President and CEO Mark Frey confirmed Amita Health's plan to Crain's to consolidate the services offered at 250 out- patient facilities and medical offices to 125 ambulatory care locations. e transition will occur over the next two years. e consolidation efforts are part of the system's $150 million ambu- latory care expansion plan, which was announced last year, according to the report. A second Amita Health official told Crain's the cost of the plan may change, as Ascension added 170 care sites aer acquir- ing Chicago-based Presence Health in March 2017. e goal of the plan, officials said, was to update Amita Health's business model by bringing smaller facilities together under one roof. Mr. Frey pointed to some of Amita Health's physician practic- es, which typically include one or two physicians. at type of busi- ness model is not substantial, Mr. Frey told Crain's. Instead, officials aim to combine groups of six to nine physicians with specialists and ancillary services, he said. Amita Health was formed through the merger of Ascension's Alex- ian Brothers Health System in Arlington Heights, Ill., and Adventist Health System's Adventist Midwest Health in Hinsdale, Ill., in 2015. n University Hospitals taps former UnitedHealthcare CMO for clinical leadership role: 5 notes By Anuja Vaidya C leveland-based University Hospitals selected Pe- ter J. Pronovost, MD, PhD, to serve as its chief clin- ical transformation officer, Oct. 29. Here are five notes: 1. Dr. Pronovost most recently served as senior vice pres- ident for clinical strategy and CMO at UnitedHealthcare. 2. Prior to that, he worked at Baltimore-based Johns Hop- kins Medicine for two decades, most recently serving as senior vice president for patient safety and quality, as well as founder and director of the Johns Hopkins Med- icine Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality. 3. A noted patient safety expert and critical care physi- cian, Dr. Pronovost is an advisor to the World Health Or- ganization's World Alliance for Patient Safety. 4. He received a MacArthur Foundation "genius grant" in 2008. 5. Dr. Pronovost has also been listed as one of Time's 100 most influential people in the world. n Walgreens wants to be seen as 'true healthcare company' By Morgan Haefner W algreens Boots Alliance CEO Stefano Pessina said the company wants to move from its image as a retailer toward health, according to CNBC. The statement comes as Walgreens competitor CVS Health closes in on its $69 billion acquisition of Aetna — which will make CVS the owner of a drugstore, a pharma- cy benefit manager and a health insurer. While Walgreens still largely operates as a pharmacy chain, the company has launched partnerships with Humana and LabCorp to test in-store health services. "So you will see that in a few years our stores will be com- pletely different and will give a lot of prominence, even in front of stores, to health and beauty," Mr. Pessina said during an Oct. 16 interview, according to CNBC. CVS CEO Larry Merlo and Mr. Pessina may be adding health services to their stores through different strategies, but it's clear both are pivoting toward health. "I don't say [ours] is the better strategy," Mr. Pessina said. "I don't have the arrogance to criticize what our competitors are doing. … We are a true healthcare company." n

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