Five NH hospitals have come together to find ways to provide higher-quality, lower-cost care. The CEOs of Concord Hospital in Concord, Elliot Hospital in Manchester, LRGHealthcare based in Laconia, Southern NH Medical Center in Nashua and Wentworth-Douglass Hospital in Dover have formed Granite Health Network.
The mission of the new group is to lead the transformation of health care delivery in the communities they each serve through improvements in quality, cost effectiveness and access to care. All five hospitals are willing to think creatively about how to provide better care, says Rachel Rowe, who became executive director of the group in May. They've agreed that value and outcomes are more important than volume and throughput of patients. They seek value-based medicine and outcomes. Rowe says the five hospitals have distinct but overlapping markets, are similar in size, are not competitors and have existing relationships that span a decade. The five CEOs have been meeting every two weeks for the past 18 months.
One early result of the collaboration is Granite Shield LLC, a limited liability company that provides self-insured medical liability to four of the hospitals (except Southern NH Medical Center). Rowe says Granite Shield is expected to save the four hospitals hundreds of thousands of dollars over the next five to 10 years as the network won't have to pay for the profitability of a private insurance company. She says not all five hospitals will take part in all initiatives, but the collaboration will help generate best practices at all five organizations.