Cogent Healthcare, Inc. Appoints Navneet Kathuria, M.D., M.P.H., as National Medical Director for Inpatient Management Programs.

Business Editors & Health/Medical Writers

IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 6, 2003

Cogent Healthcare, Inc., one of the nation's leading providers of inpatient management services, has appointed Navneet Kathuria, M.D., M.P.H., as national medical director for its inpatient management programs.

"Dr. Kathuria's experience as a practicing hospitalist physician and as an educator will be key assets to help Cogent fulfill two important goals: to identify the best clinical practices and then to standardize the delivery of care across multiple markets," said Ron Greeno, M.D., chief medical officer and senior vice president of physician services, Cogent Healthcare. "His teaching background will also support our educational programs for physicians and nurses, bringing to them the latest developments in hospital care."

"Cogent brings the systems and the technology to the clinical care team so that they can focus on the care of the patient, not the processing of paperwork," noted Dr. Kathuria. "Our challenge as physicians is to be synthesizers of information, not repositories of information. When we have continuity of data we can have continuity of care. The result is better care of the patient, and more efficient use of medical resources."

At Cogent Healthcare, Dr. Kathuria will be responsible for physician training and mentoring, physician reporting and decisioning support, along with overseeing continued improvements to Cogent best practice guidelines and audit programs that identify and remove barriers to efficient care. Dr. Kathuria will report to Dr. Greeno.

Prior to joining Cogent Healthcare, Dr. Kathuria served as associate chief in the division of general medicine at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center, where he was also a practicing hospitalist physician and responsible for general medical education at one of the largest internal medicine programs in the United States. In addition, he was on the faculty at Columbia University.

Dr. Kathuria graduated from Albany Medical College and completed his residency in internal medicine at New York University, serving as chief resident. After his fellowship training as a hematologist at Yale University, Dr. Kathuria completed a general medicine fellowship at Columbia University and also earned a master's degree in public health.

The use of hospitalist physicians specializing in the care of hospitalized patients is one of the fastest growing trends in medicine. According to the National Association of Inpatient Physicians, there are currently 6,000 practicing hospitalists around the country, up from 2,000 in 1998. By 2010, the number of practicing hospitalists is expected to reach 20,000.

A recent article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) cited studies that showed hospitalist care lowered costs by an average of 13.4 percent and reduced the length of hospital stay by an average of 16.6 percent without harmful effects on quality or patient satisfaction. Earlier this year, Baptist Hospital in Pensacola, Florida, announced that results of their hospitalist program with Cogent Healthcare surpassed JAMA results with a 33 percent reduction in average cost per case and a 31 percent reduction in average length of hospital stay.

About Cogent Healthcare, Inc.:

Cogent Healthcare, Inc. (www.cogenthealthcare.com) is a leading provider of services that improve the well being of hospitalized patients while reducing their associated costs through the creation and management of inpatient-based physician networks. Its vision is to improve care and efficiency by reducing variations in care, establishing best practices, identifying and removing barriers to efficient care, and measuring outcomes. To this end, the company provides comprehensive programs in clinical care staffing, communication, and data management that support the hospitalist physician in the delivery of inpatient care.

Cogent Healthcare's programs are currently in 10 major markets throughout the United States. The company has contracts with more than 65 facilities including 155 hospitals with 1,300 referring primary care physicians, covering more than 2,000,000 lives. Cogent clients include most of the nation's largest health plans such as United Healthcare, BlueCross/BlueShield, and Kaiser Permanente, plus leading hospitals and hospital systems such as Intermountain Healthcare in Utah, Baptist Health Systems in Florida and Texas, North Broward Medical Center in Pompano Beach, Florida, Lee Memorial Health System in Fort Myers, Florida, Coral Springs Medical Center in Coral Springs, Florida, and St. Vincent's Medical Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

In addition to traditional hospitalist programs, the company has a program with Kaiser Permanente, the nation's largest HMO, which has 2.7 million members in Southern California, to provide hospitalists to handle emergency care sought by its members at non-Kaiser hospitals.

More than two years ago, Cogent Healthcare also launched the first Internet-based continuing medical educational program for hospitalist physicians. Its CME programs for physicians, nurses and pharmacists can be accessed at the company's website, www.cogenthealthcare.com.