Anchor Health Center

Source: Healthcare Digital

Date :11/04/2008 06:48:18

Anchor Health Centers’ business model enables it to deliver high-quality healthcare to the people of Naples, Florida – and to leverage contracting and purchasing resources

Written by Ruari McCallion and Produced by Shaheen Mohammadipour

Physicians are pretty well-known for staunch defense of their independence and, while they co-operate well in hospitals and to promote medical interests, it’s unusual to find them grouping together to form a single organization, covering many practices. But that’s exactly what Anchor Health Centers, in Naples, Fla, does – and successfully.

“Anchor was established in 1996 and started practicing in 1997,” said Debbie Chandler, CEO. “The idea behind it came out of issues in healthcare in the mid-1990s. There was a lot going on in the community with regards to physicians and hospitals and a group of primary care physicians thought it would be better for them to get together. They saw opportunities to improve purchasing and achieve economies of scale; they believed that, with the ability to share resources, they’d do better than if they were on their own. The idea has worked very well – we’re now in our eleventh year.”

What began as a small-scale innovation has grown to become a 500-employee organization with revenues in excess of $70 million from treating 70-80,000 patients a year. It has 18 locations across Naples and Collier County, primarily doctors’ offices but also including ancillary services such as laboratories and radiology. Anchor is proud of being able to offer its patients a sophisticated range of radiology services, from simple X-ray to advanced cardio and vascular imaging and PET (positron emission tomography) scans.

“We have recently opened a new 21,000 square foot facility in the Eagle View Building, which houses our Cardiovascular Risk Reduction Center (CRRC),” Ms Chandler said. “It houses a 64-slice CT scanner, which is so fast it can actually image bloodflow in the veins, arteries and heart.”

It also houses blood labs and urgent care, walk-in services on the first floor, and primary care upstairs. “We opened a new, 15,000 square foot facility in November and that’s the model of our forward development; we will try to stay away from small buildings. These new buildings will house urgent care/walk-in services with radiology and lab on the first floor, and primary care doctors upstairs. All our facilities are Ethernet serviced; our phones are VoIP internet and shared and that level of servicing becomes expensive in networks of small buildings, so the 15,000 square foot model makes economic sense.”

Serving all patients

Naples, Fla, is on the Gulf Coast of south-west Florida. It has more golf courses per head than any other area of the US and that gives an indication of an important segment of the organization’s client base. It has a lot of retirees, and as such has five specialist geriatricians on the staff to service them. But it also has a strong pediatric tradition, maintained by six top notch pediatricians.

“We aim to serve all patients, across all segments,” she continued. “We have entire families we look after and that helps us to develop our strong preventative and advisory services. If, for example, a father has suffered a heart attack, we’ll see his sons and children in the family. If we see obesity, we’ll advise on diet and exercise regimes and monitor them, helping them to stay healthy. We focus on wellness and prevention, as well as treatment.”

Best practice

One of the most effective tools in patient treatment management is NextGen, Anchor’s electronic medical records (EMR) IT system. In place of paper-based records, which are by definition only available as a complete original in one place, NextGen utilizes entirely computer-based record keeping. As well as basic information, it holds complete records of treatment, therapies and wellness regimes that can be called up anywhere that has Internet access – and that includes hospitals. Even if patients can’t give full medical information, either because they don’t know the chemical formulae of every drug they are taking or they’re unable to speak, NextGen provides the information in an instant.

“We use our EMR system to screen patients for compliance with medication and to ensure that they are being treated effectively,” Ms Chandler said. “It makes all patients’ records available to all our doctors, specialists and medical support staff across the entire multi-practice group. It saves a lot of time; the attending physician can immediately see the whole records – the next scheduled wellness check, the results of tests, and so on. The patients see it as safe, it immediately flags up warnings for contra indications on medicines – it makes everything more accessible. The doctors have generally embraced it – there was some resistance in the beginning but they are seeing it as just another electronic tool.”

Educational partnerships

Anchor has built its strong reputation over a decade and its services and approach are valued outside the immediate organization, also. It has an educational partnership with two universities in the north-east, who send lecturers to visit and assist with continuous professional education. It works both ways: Anchor refers patients to them, and looks after visitors over-wintering in Florida’s sunshine. It provides screening and examination services to local police and fire services as well as school boards. Central contracting gives leverage with purchasing and the relationship with local hospitals is sufficiently good that invoice payment is noticeably quicker than under traditional arrangements.

It has invested $1 million on the NextGen EMR system, which is a much better rate of return than some other health providers. Overall, Anchor Health Centers seem to offer an attractive, efficient model of healthcare for the future.