Becker's Hospital Review

32 POPULATION HEALTH 32 CEO / STRATEGY Hoag CEO reflects on the small yet mighty Southern California health network By Lauren Jensik R obert Braithwaite, president and CEO of Hoag Memorial Hospital Presby- terian in Newport Beach, Calif., said being a smaller health system in a pandemic proved powerful. "A lot of people worried for us, and in real- ity, it proved to be a significant advantage," he told Becker's. "We were much more nimble and much more impactful in our communi- ty than if we'd had to work through multiple layers of a larger health system." As COVID-19 raged throughout the state, Hoag managed to exceed its care standards. "When we did the look back on how we did from a quality-of-care standpoint with CMS indicators, patient satisfaction … all of those things went up," he said. "So in the middle of this pandemic, something many of us were ex- periencing for the first time, we actually saw improvements in quality and improvements in satisfaction that we did not anticipate." Hoag has spent the last decade expanding its outreach, opening multiple centers and clin- ics in communities throughout the county. One of these clinics, Fly Well, is in Santa Ana's John Wayne Airport. Mr. Braithwaite said he plans to continue expanding post-pandemic by focusing primarily on the ambulatory and virtual spaces. "e pandemic brought almost an end to geographic exclusivity for healthcare services," he said. "You can get health ser- vices more broadly and you can overcome geographic barriers." Mr. Braithwaite said one challenge Hoag faces is overseeing high volumes of patients whose medical conditions have worsened in the last year because they avoided care due to fear of contracting COVID-19 at a healthcare facility. "at's putting pressure on the acuity and the intensity of services that's disproportionate to a normal cycle or trend that we would see," he said. As he reflected on this year, Mr. Braithwaite said a key takeaway was the importance of county, state and federal coordination. "ere were lots of moving parts and lots of contradictory policies that were emerg- ing, and when we were able to sync up, at least at the county level, we saw progress faster and much better care," he said. "More collaboration across the public health spec- trum would be really helpful to not only us, but statewide." n Tyson Foods opens 1st medical clinic for employees By Morgan Haefner T yson Foods opened its first medical clinic for employees in Dyersburg, Tenn., the company said May 5. The clinic, one of seven planned near Tyson production sites across the U.S., opened April 28 by Tyson's facili- ty in Newbern, Tenn. The remaining six clinics will open through spring and summer 2021 in six other states: Ar- kansas, Nebraska, North Carolina, Texas, Iowa and Kansas. The clinics are run through a partnership with Mara- thon Health, which operates medical clinics for em- ployer organizations across 40 states. Most employees can receive free primary care, health screenings and behavioral health counseling at the clinics. The clinics also work with primary care physicians and specialists in the community. Claudia Coplein, DO, CMO for Tyson Foods, said in a news release: "Some of our frontline team members aren't using their health plan benefits, and others don't seek care until there's a crisis. We want to change that by providing access to care that can help detect health conditions early and promote healthy habits." Tyson announced plans for the clinics, which will serve 38,000 employees and their families, in September 2020. n Tower Health's medical group to lose physicians By Laura Dyrda W est Reading, Pa.-based Tower Health revealed May 10 that some of its physicians will leave when it restructures its medical group, according to a report from the local Daily Times. Five details: 1. Tower Health Medical Group includes 134 practices, some of which will close or consolidate under the restruc- turing plan. As of May 28, the health system has not dis- closed which practices will be affected. 2. The changes will affect 95 of its 876 physicians and advanced practice providers as well as 100 support staff members. 3. Some of the physicians and providers will end their employment contracts with Tower Health to enter private practice or contract with other organizations. 4. For the remaining physicians and providers, Tower will make incentive payments at 60 percent of eligible dollars, as it did in 2020. 5. In an email to employees, Tower Health CEO P. Sue Per- rotty said she expects the move to improve the health sys- tem's finances by about $70 million. n

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