UCSF Stanford Health Care Reports Successful First Year.

SAN FRANCISCO--(BW HealthWire)--Nov. 5, 1998--UCSF Stanford Health Care announced that during its first year as a merged organization, its four hospitals cared for more than 58,000 patients, a nearly 6 percent increase over the previous year.

Despite significant limitations on public and private health care reimbursements, the newly created organization is projected to meet its first year target of a $20 million operating return on revenue of $1.5 billion.

"The merger has made us stronger and allowed us to focus on what we do best, translating cutting-edge research into improvements in patient care," said Peter Van Etten, president and CEO of UCSF Stanford Health Care.

"At the one year mark, we have made significant progress in integrating our operations and have built an infrastructure that is allowing physicians to collaborate on improving clinical services."

UCSF Stanford Health Care is a private, nonprofit organization that brings together the preeminent medical centers of UC San Francisco and Stanford University. The organization operates four acute care hospitals -- UCSF Medical Center, UCSF/Mount Zion Medical Center, Stanford Hospital and Clinics and Lucile Salter Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford.

While the UCSF and Stanford medical schools remain independent, UCSF Stanford draws on the clinical expertise of their faculties and provides support to their academic and research missions.

Since UCSF and Stanford's hospitals are located forty miles apart, patient care has not been consolidated at one or another site, but rather, physicians are beginning to work together to identify best practices and ensure that patients can access the most advanced treatments at any of the organization's sites.

From the beginning, one of UCSF Stanford's areas of focus has been pediatric services. Physicians at Lucile Salter Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford and the pediatric program at UCSF Medical Center have joined forces under the Lucile Packard Children's Health Services umbrella.

Patients and their parents are already reaping the benefit of this collaboration in terms of improved surgical procedures.

An example is the treatment of Hirschprung's disease, a life-threatening bowel disorder that affects infants. A combined team of Children's Health Services surgeons, led by Michael Harrison, the newly appointed director of pediatric surgery, has developed a minimally invasive procedure to treat this condition.

This significant innovation allows physicians to correct the disorder with one minimally invasive surgical procedure instead of a series of three traditional surgeries. Not only does this innovation speed children's recovery time, but it is also saving significant expenses by dramatically reducing days spent in the hospital.

Adult programs are similarly benefiting from the merger. A coordinated UCSF Stanford Clinical Cancer Program has enabled collaboration between the 150 physicians that specialize in cancer care at UCSF and Stanford.

Patients who get their care at UCSF/Mount Zion Medical Center or at Stanford Hospital and Clinics will now have access to the hundreds of clinical trials that are housed in San Francisco and at Stanford. In addition, construction is underway for a new state-of-the-art cancer treatment center at UCSF/Mount Zion and funds have been secured for a multi-disciplinary Stanford facility.

Another area of focus for the new enterprise is heart disease. Faculty from both campuses have formed clinically specialized teams and are beginning to plan joint programs. One of their first projects is a Women's Cardiac Care initiative. UCSF and Stanford faculty will work together to address the societal problems of missed diagnosis and under-treatment of women.

"Considering the difficult health care environment in which public and private payers are feeling pressure to cut costs, we will need to continue improving efficiency," said Van Etten. "This will be critical in order to secure the resources to support both the expansion of patient programs and our teaching and training mission."

The first year saw $38 million in savings related to the merger, $20 million of which was due to decreased cost from joint purchasing and reductions in administrative overhead.