The extended relationship broadens access to patient-centered care, improves care coordination and chronic disease management, and allows for sharing of treatment guidelines and protocols.
CVS Health and Cleveland Clinic announced that they are expanding their eight-year clinical affiliation across Northeast Ohio and Florida.
The expanded relationship builds on the clinical affiliation between MinuteClinic, the retail medical clinic of CVS Health, and Cleveland Clinic. Going forward, MinuteClinic, CVS Pharmacy and Cleveland Clinic will offer convenient clinical support, medication counseling, chronic disease monitoring and wellness programs at CVS Pharmacy and MinuteClinic to address high rates of chronic diseases, such as hypertension.
“Our clinical collaboration with Cleveland Clinic has successfully increased access to care for thousands of patients,” Sharon Vitti, senior vice president and executive director of MinuteClinic, said in joint media release.
“By expanding and enhancing our affiliation, we will broaden electronic communication between providers in both organizations and leverage population health data to help improve the health outcomes and reduce the cost of care for the patients we serve,” Vitti said.
CVS Health will join Cleveland Clinic’s Quality Alliance, a clinically integrated network collaborating on quality measures around chronic disease management. The two organizations will share standard protocols and quality metrics and review population health data through integrated, secured systems.
“This collaboration enhances the quality of care patients will receive and allows us to oversee their care more seamlessly than we do today,” said Michael Rabovsky, MD, chairman of the Cleveland Clinic Department of Family Medicine. “As part of our Quality Alliance, CVS Health joins our clinically integrated network which uniquely positions us to share treatment guidelines and protocols and puts the patient at the center of a larger system of care when they need it.”
MinuteClinic, CVS Pharmacy and Cleveland Clinic will streamline communications through their electronic health records, which will include electronic sharing of messages and alerts about patients’ prescription information, visit summaries, diagnoses and treatment protocol, with patient consent, directly between the treating physicians and CVS Pharmacy and MinuteClinic.
“The expanded collaboration with CVS Health also allows us to provide better access to quality care for patients in Florida,” said Hermann Stubbe, MD, chairman of the Cleveland Clinic Florida Department of Family Medicine. “The ability to share information, quality measures and protocols will reduce chronic disease and ultimately improve our patients’ quality of life.”
John Commins is the news editor for HealthLeaders.