NORTH HOLLYWOOD, Calif., June 15 /PRNewswire/ -- IPC, the nation's foremost hospitalist company, has entered into an agreement with VHA Inc., a nationwide cooperative serving 2,200 community-owned healthcare organizations, to offer consulting services to VHA member hospitals seeking to develop or enhance their hospitalist programs.
The new agreement builds upon a previous agreement the two organizations signed in 2002. Under the new agreement, VHA will offer IPC's hospitalist consulting services to VHA member hospitals as part of its overall portfolio of clinical consulting services.
"The agreement leverages the respective strengths of both VHA and IPC, enhances VHA's hospitalist consulting offering, and increases the availability of hospitalist services to VHA members," said Rick Kunnes, M.D., VHA's vice president of clinical and operations consulting.
IPC's consulting division brings to hospitals a proven track record of data, experience, and insights into hospitalist best practices that is unmatched in the industry. This track record is based on hundreds of hospitalists within the IPC family currently practicing at nearly 200 hospitals nationwide. Last year, IPC hospitalists had nearly a million patient visits and worked with over 12,000 referring physicians.
"Hospitalists are the true drivers of an otherwise fragmented inpatient delivery system," said IPC Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer Adam Singer, M.D. "We look forward to continuing our relationship with VHA and assisting many VHA member hospitals with hospitalist programs that will improve patient outcomes, lower costs and achieve greater patient satisfaction."
Hospitalists are physicians who work in close consultation with the primary care physician and appropriate specialists to manage a patient's entire hospital experience, from time of admission until discharge. As the fastest-growing medical specialty in the country, hospitalists have been shown to increase the quality of care and reduce healthcare costs while providing patients the added comfort and security of having a physician on-site to oversee care, answer questions and ensure the smooth coordination of all hospital services.
VHA Inc. is a national cooperative of leading not-for-profit healthcare organizations that work together to improve the health of the communities they serve. VHA leverages the collective strength of the membership to improve clinical, operational and financial performance. Through the VHA cooperative, members benefit from resources that assess critical needs and identify best practices to create customized solutions that lower costs and improve clinical quality. As a cooperative, VHA distributes income annually to members based on their participation. Located in Irving, Texas, with 18 offices across the U.S., VHA was named one of the "100 Best Companies to Work For" by Fortune in January 2004 for the fifth year in a row. For more information go to http://www.vha.com/.
IPC is the nation's premier hospitalist company, employing approximately 300 physicians at practice locations in many markets across the country. Collectively, these practices manage more than $1 billion in healthcare expenditures annually. IPC offers a full range of hospitalist programs to hospitals and other healthcare organizations. The company's consulting services division helps hospitals and other healthcare organizations launch new hospitalist programs or enhance existing ones. Information on IPC may be obtained at http://www.hospitalist.com/.
IPC, The Hospitalist CompanyCONTACT: Ross Goldberg, +1-818-597-8453, for IPC, The HospitalistCompany
Web site: http://www.vha.com/
Web site: http://www.hospitalist.com/
