Orlando Health, the University of Florida, and Shands HealthCare have formed a free-flowing collaborative to expand physician training, develop interoperable electronic medical records systems, and improve quality and access to healthcare for 2.5 million people across a 20-county region in Central Florida.
At a ceremony on Thursday, officials at the three institutions signed a memorandum of understanding that provides a foundation for several cooperative initiatives, which they called a natural result of years of close working relationships.
"The formal affiliation of Orlando Health with the University of Florida and Shands will build on our longstanding and valuable relationship and enhance our collective energies as regional and statewide clinical leaders," says David S. Guzick, MD, senior vice president for health affairs at UF and president of the UF & Shands Health System.
"As the healthcare needs of patients throughout Central and North Central Florida continue to grow, we will seek out ways to collaborate on comprehensive clinical programs for adults and children and fortify our role as educational leaders in delivering the highest-quality education for future physicians and other health providers," he adds.
The agreement calls for the three institutions to form joint clinical programs in pediatrics, neuroscience, oncology, women's health, transplantation, and cardiovascular medicine, which will include a regional comprehensive cardiac care program. The collaborative will increase undergraduate and graduate medical residency and fellowship training at Orlando Health, facilitate clinical trials through UF's clinical research program, and collaborate on quality care and safety initiatives.
UF College of Medicine Dean Michael L. Good, MD, said the collaborative is "built upon existing partnerships" with physicians in three "tremendously strong healthcare organizations."
"Many of our doctors already work together," Good said. "This agreement allows us to collaborate on much broader scale between groups of physicians and divisions and departments, working with one another around the triad of best care, best educational opportunities, and providing the best environment for advancing new knowledge and discovery."
Orlando Health CEO John Hillenmeyer called the collaborative "a work in progress" with some of the details not finalized.
"There is not a structure," he said. "Now that we have arrived at this it becomes management's responsibility, and we're required by our boards to figure out how we are going to manage this process. While we have ideas, if you ask for a specific staff that is doing A, B, C, or D today, it's not there. But those plans are being laid right now."
Hillenmeyer said the three institutions agreed on front-end guiding principals, and will sort out the details as the collaborative matures.
"Rather that try to figure it out on the front end and probably create barriers for getting things done, we'd rather say we've agreed to this and we are going to go about it," he said. "I can assure you we did not dream this up two weeks ago. This has been going on, parts of it, for several years. We just thought the time was right to go to both of our boards and to announce to the public that we are working together. As details on particular programs evolve, I'm sure there will be more activity."
Through the collaboration, Orlando Health physicians could receive faculty appointments, teach UF medical students or graduate medical trainees, or participate in UF-sponsored clinical trials.
The agreement could increase the use of Orlando Health as a training site for UF medical residents and fellows. The clinical faculty from UF's College of Medicine also could participate with Orlando Health medical staff on clinical services.
The alliance creates additional opportunities for the physician groups to work together to develop joint clinical protocols that will enhance quality and safety for patients.
More than 2.5 million Floridians across nearly 20 counties are served by the three health-care organizations.
With an eye towards healthcare reform mandates, the collaborative will develop compatible electronic medical information systems to ensure easy access to patient records. They hope to provide services ranging from primary care to the most complex, such as transplantation, and will share common values in education, research, and charitable care.
"We really do have an opportunity with this number of physicians and connected organizations to make some serious initiatives in delivery system reform, which is what healthcare reform is all about," Hillenmeyer says.
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University of Florida, Shands HealthCare announce $580M Collaboration
John Commins is a content specialist and online news editor for HealthLeaders, a Simplify Compliance brand.