Cogent Healthcare Inc. Selected to Provide Inpatient Management Services to Intermountain Health Care's McKay-Dee Hospital Center, Ogden, Utah.

Business Editors & Health Writers

LAGUNA HILLS, Calif.--(BW HealthWire)--June 18, 2001

Trend for Hospitals to Outsource Inpatient Management Continues

Cogent Healthcare Inc. has been tapped by McKay-Dee Hospital Center, the third-largest hospital owned by Intermountain Health Care (IHC), one of the West's leading health-care organizations, to provide inpatient management services for the 300-bed Ogden, Utah-based hospital.

McKay-Dee is the latest addition to the growing list of leading hospitals pioneering the trend to outsource their inpatient management to companies like Cogent Healthcare. As with other hospitals at the forefront of this trend, the hospital realized that the support and active participation of physicians was critical to the success of the program.

"We had several supporters among our family practice and internal- medicine physicians, as well as a number of secondary care physicians who were excited about the benefits that hospitalists could bring to the medical management of their patients," stated Tim Pehrson, operations officer for McKay-Dee Hospital Center.

"Developing the program internally would take more time and resources than we had available. We selected Cogent because of their expertise in developing and managing these programs, their mentoring programs for hospitalist physicians, their reporting systems, and their strong IT support systems and operational model."

Having worked with Cogent prior to joining the staff at McKay-Dee, Pehrson became familiar with the strong points behind Cogent's inpatient management program.

"They have a technology backbone to support the program, communications back to primary care physicians to keep them informed of the patient's progress, callbacks to patients right after discharge to make sure that patients and their families are able to follow their care plan at home, and support such as clinical care coordinators, specially trained nurses who support the hospitalist physician and coordinate the day-to-day management of patient care. Plus, they have the general knowledge of how to run a hospital-based program," he explained.

The program, scheduled to take effect in the fall of 2001, marks the third time that Cogent has contracted directly with a hospital. In 1999, the company announced the launch of its first program sponsored by a free-standing hospital, at St. Vincent's Medical Center, Santa Fe, northern New Mexico's largest acute care facility. Then, in 2000, Cogent was contracted by Baptist Hospital in Pensacola, Fla., the largest hospital in the Baptist Health Care network.

Until recently, these programs have primarily been implemented on behalf of health plans.

"The benefits of having an inpatient management program within the hospital are countless," said Michael Brouthers, chief executive officer and president of Cogent Healthcare. "It provides a service to the primary care physicians and specialists who welcome the assistance of a highly skilled hospitalist physician in managing the day-to-day care of inpatients.

"Patients who enter the hospital through the emergency room who do not have primary care physicians are seen and evaluated quickly. Patients and their families welcome the additional coordination of their care and the communication they receive from the hospitalist team.

"And, by removing barriers to the efficient delivery of care, quality of care is improved, safety is enhanced, and the hospital's resources are used in the most appropriate and efficient manner possible."

An added feature of the McKay-Dee program will be the opportunity for residents in the family practice training program to participate in the hospitalist mentoring program as part of their training within the hospital. The practice of hospitalism is fast becoming the accepted model for inpatient care in the United States. The residents will be trained and mentored by Cogent physicians who have been the leaders in this emerging movement.

About Cogent Healthcare

Cogent Healthcare 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. Cogent Healthcare provides comprehensive programs in clinical care staffing, communication and data management that support the hospitalist physician in the delivery of inpatient care.

In May 2000, Cogent Healthcare also launched the first Internet- based continuing medical educational program for hospitalist physicians.

In addition, Cogent is developing a network of resources to enhance management throughout the continuum of care, addressing home care, subacute care, disease management and end-of-life issues. Its mission is to improve care and efficiency by reducing variations in care, establishing best practices, identifying and removing barriers to efficient care, and measuring outcomes.

Cogent Healthcare is currently one of the largest inpatient care management companies, with contracts with more than 65 facilities covering 155 hospitals with 1,300 referring primary care physicians, covering more than 2 million lives throughout the United States.

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 their members at non-Kaiser hospitals.

About McKay-Dee Hospital Center

Celebrating 90 years in the Ogden community, McKay-Dee Hospital Center is a not-for-profit, acute care, tertiary facility located 30 miles north of Salt Lake City. Part of the Intermountain Health Care (IHC) system, it serves a community of nearly 325,000 in Weber and North Davis counties with a broad array of services, including nationally recognized programs in heart, rehabilitation and newborn intensive care services.

McKay-Dee is a Level 2 Trauma center with an Intensive Care Unit staffed by four full-time Intensivists.

The new McKay-Dee Hospital is located on 65 acres about a block from the current facility, with entrances from Country Hills Drive and Harrison Boulevard. The 284-room hospital is slated to open in the spring of 2002.

For more information on McKay-Dee Hospital, check out its Web site at http://www.mckay-dee.com.

Intermountain Health Care is a charitable, community-owned, nonprofit health-care organization based in Salt Lake City that serves the health needs of Utah and Idaho residents. The IHC system includes health insurance plans, hospitals, clinics and affiliated physicians.

It currently owns 22 hospitals, has more than 1 million members enrolled in its HMO, and employs more than 400 physicians. Last year, in more than 100,000 cases, IHC hospitals and associated clinics provided $31 million in charitable assistance. A central part of IHC's mission is to provide quality medical care to persons with a medical need, regardless of ability to pay. IHC's Web site is at http://www.ihc.com.

What Is a Hospitalist?

Hospitalists are physicians who specialize in the care of hospitalized patients. By being available around the clock, these specialists are able to attend to a patient's changing condition as it occurs rather than having care delayed until the primary care physician can arrive from his or her practice. The critical care skills of these specialists are important factors in helping today's more critically ill hospital patients get the level of care they need.

Thus, hospitalists improve the quality of care patients receive, and they enhance the efficiency of the care process. By delivering more efficient and timely care, the time the patient spends in the hospital may be reduced. Cogent Healthcare provides comprehensive programs in clinical care staffing, communication and data management that support the hospitalist physician in the delivery of inpatient care.