Consolidation Contributes to Delivery of Higher Value Care

David Peterson
Senior Vice President, Marketing
March 9, 2017

David-Peterson-thumbnailConsolidation in healthcare is nothing new, in fact it’s hotter than ever. Most analysts, and others who know the industry well, will tell you this trend is positive as we seek better patient outcomes, operational efficiencies, and cost containment to deliver higher value care. In the outsourced medical service provider sector of healthcare, we also can increase value with mergers and acquisitions. As the sector matures, consolidation offers new opportunities to provide customers with high quality, specialized, and reliable services that support hospitals’ goals within today’s rapidly changing healthcare environment.

SpecialtyCare is excited that in recent months we’ve added two highly regarded medical teams to our organization through acquisition. Trident Health Resources, founded in 1988 by Ralph E. Jordan, became a top perfusion provider with a tremendous reputation for evidence-based, patient-first care. Sentient Medical Systems, an intraoperative neuromonitoring (IONM) company that also offers diagnostic and treatment therapies, including leadership in deep brain stimulation, is widely respected for the clinical skill and professionalism of its staff.

As we’ve gotten to know our newest team members, we’re thrilled by their knowledge, enthusiasm, and dedication to our shared mission of improving the delivery of healthcare. Consolidating presents a tremendous opportunity for us to learn from each other and combine the best ideas and practices under the banner of one unified team. Parallel processes and systems are being restructured and streamlined as our integration plans continue to unfold. Eventually we will retire the Sentient and Trident websites and documentation will be updated and rebranded with the SpecialtyCare logo, but already we are learning and adopting new ideas, making us all better as a combined team and enabling us to increase value for our customers and our patients.

Integration means more than consolidating staff and processes, however; it’s about customers, too. We’ve enjoyed meeting with our newest customers, learning about the challenges they face in today’s climate, and discussing solutions that address their unique needs. Our customer integration plan is well underway—from credentialing and scheduling to billing and technology—we’re taking a systematic approach to ensure a smooth transition of operations and services. We’re excited to add our new customers to SCOPE™, the SpecialtyCare Operative Procedural Registry, which enables us to establish standards and comparative benchmarking that drive performance improvement. And, we’re eager to introduce our surgeon partners and OR teams to the clinical research that’s derived from the database and regularly shared here on our blog and at industry meetings throughout the country and abroad.

We are truly privileged to have the highly skilled professionals from Trident, Sentient, and SpecialtyCare now working side-by-side and in partnership with all of our hospital customers to provide exceptional patient care. We’re confident that coming together as one unified team will raise the bar—it will make all of us better and stronger. In the end, consolidation will help our customers advance patient outcomes, create new efficiencies, and contain costs, which ultimately benefits everyone by improving value in the U.S. healthcare system.