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When it comes to excellent patient care, the doctor knows best. That is the message of Lexington Clinic Chief Executive Officer Dr. Andrew Henderson and Central Kentucky Surgery President Dr. Kent J. Kessler as the pair announced the new alliance between the two care providers.
“For us as a general surgical group, health care has changed dramatically in 17 years, and I will tell you in the next 17 years it will change three times as much,” Kessler said. “The pace of change will not slow down, it will just increase exponentially. And really it’s becoming more and more apparent as we move along down this path, that patients get better care with more centralized physician-run and physician-led enterprises.”
In the newly formed alliance between Central Kentucky Surgery and Lexington Clinic, an emphasis on better patient care by means of streamlining physician communication and electronic health records will be central to the new partnership.
Henderson said due to the economy, rising costs of care and the increased burden of illness in Kentucky, there is a lot of pressure on health care and it is leading to an urgent need for new acquisitions and alliances in order to lower costs and be competitive for consumers. He said regardless of what the U.S. Supreme Court decides this summer about federal health care reform — strike it down, uphold it or uphold only parts of it — health care will need to adapt and improve.
And part of Lexington Clinic’s plan of action put in place three years ago is to develop an associates plan, where it partners with associates with quality, productive physicians typically in a more specified area beyond general practice.
“Dr. Kessler and his partners are the premier surgical group in Richmond,” he said. “They’ve been in Richmond for many, many years and have a strong commitment to their community, so it seemed to be a perfect fit.”
Lexington Clinic’s primary care presence and cancer presence in Richmond will now partner with Central Kentucky Surgery’s general surgery presence to give patients there a more streamlined doctor-patient experience. The groups will be able to have real-time data access through electronic health records and easily share information among specialties to save time and money for patients.
“In all of these things ultimately what we want to do is lead to better patient care, period,” Kessler said.
Alliances like these, he added, are necessary in a market consumed with worry about rising health care costs and Supreme Court decisions.
“I think that a lot of people spend a tremendous amount of time worrying about what is going to happen five years down the road,” Kessler said. “We don’t know what is going to happen five years down the road. All we know is what’s going on right now, and really with the new health care coming out from the federal government, the ‘Obama care’ if you will, yes, that will drive a lot of changes— but no matter what the Supreme Court does, health care will still change.”
For patients of Central Kentucky Surgery, though, changes as a result of the alliance that will be effective Aug. 1 of this year might simply be a matter of the name on a bill for care. But what they will receive, according to Henderson, is an easier treatment process that will ultimately save them and their care provider money because of fewer visits and repeat tests, fewer cases of misdiagnosis, and more effective treatment because of strengthened communication among their doctors.
“They don’t have to be driving with X-rays here and there,” Henderson said, adding that electronic health records alone have been proven to decrease errors and lower costs for all parties.
Kessler said that his office’s presence, staff, location and building will all look the same to patients. He joked that all Central Kentucky Surgery has to do now is quickly train all of its physicians and staff in the employee health records utilized by Lexington Clinic and that it would certainly take “more than a day.” Henderson added that both Lexington Clinic and Central Kentucky Surgery would have to invest financially in their staff at the outset but that improvements should happen quickly for patients.
“There’s always gives and takes in any relationship, as long as we’re all committed together to do what’s right for the patient we’ll find the best answer for everyone,” Henderson said.
The alliance is Lexington Clinic’s largest in the Richmond market and is the fourth practice in the associates plan. Now patients in Richmond can have their family doctor and their surgeon all in one system. Henderson said there will be more alliances like this for Lexington Clinic since “good, big systems are bringing more efficient health care.”
Kessler added that alliances like this will drive change in the medical marketplace because of improved patient experiences and lowered costs.
“What our group wants to do, we want to be involved with a large multi-specialty group like the Lexington Clinic, but we want to be at the forefront of change,” he said. “We don’t want to worry about what the government is going to do this year or next year. We don’t want the government to come to our office and say, ‘Now you need to have an electronic health record.’ We’re going to already have it ... We’ll push the change, we’ll do the things that the market will say, ‘Wow, look at that, that’s what we’re going to do, too.’”
And since doctors are the ones taking care of patients, Kessler and Henderson agree that alliances like this always need to be driven by the doctor and patient relationship.