The College will announce the creation of Dartmouth Health Connect, a new health center in downtown Hanover, on Thursday following recent efforts to improve preventative health care practices on campus and across the country, according to Justin Anderson, director of media relations for the College. The center which will aim to reduce health care costs while improving care will open its doors in February to all current and retired Dartmouth employees and their families, Anderson said.
Dartmouth Health Connect was the brainchild of College President Jim Yong Kim, who has worked extensively on preventative health care science throughout his career, according to Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Steve Kadish. Kim plans for Dartmouth Health Connect to experiment with administering preventative care, Kadish said in an interview with The Dartmouth.
"When we started to look at the best models of how to deliver health care, we decided to try it here instead of just looking at it from an academic perspective," Kadish said.
The center, located at 8 Allen St., will be open to current and retired Dartmouth employees and their families who are covered under Dartmouth's health plan, Kadish said. He compared subscribing to the practice to choosing a primary care physician, but said members will not have copayments and will enjoy improved accessibility compared to other practices in the area.
"The expectation is that you'll be able to see someone on the team within 24 to 48 hours if you have some kind of emergency," Kadish said.
The practice will accept rolling sign-ups from now through the center's opening in February, according to the College's Assistant Vice President for Finance Tricia Spellman. Two part-time Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center doctors will staff the center full-time, and several health coaches will work alongside the doctors. The exact number of health coaches will depend on the level of interest in the practice, Spellman said.
"This isn't just about primary care, but it's also about how they treat you as a patient," she said.
Dartmouth Health Connect will provide community members with improved access to medical care given its location on the ground floor of 8 Allen St., according to Hanover Town Manager Julia Griffin.
"It's an ideal location because people can walk to their doctor's office," she said. "That makes a lot of sense."
The building process will be simple because the construction only requires internal modifications of a currently vacant space, according to Griffin.
Dartmouth Health Connect will offset current costs at DHMC through both its administrative and treatment practices, according to Spellman. While Dartmouth employees' primary care is currently paid for through an insurance company, doctors at the new practice will be paid directly by the College, bypassing the "middleman" and reducing the time needed to file claims and appeals, Spellman said. The majority of the cost savings, however, will result from the switch in focus from treatment at DHMC to preventative care at Dartmouth Health Connect, she said.
"There's hospitalizations happening that don't need to happen, and people going to the [emergency room] that don't need to go," Spellman said. "If people can call up and get an appointment within 24 to 48 hours, that saves us those costs."
Spellman declined to estimate Dartmouth Health Connect's total startup costs, stating that the initial costs will depend on the number of employees who sign up for the service.
Kim and an administrative task force collaborated with Rushika Fernandopulle, president of Iora Health based in Cambridge, Mass., to design the new center's medical operations over the course of four to six months, Kadish said. The task force also collaborated with DHMC Executive Medical Director John Butterly, according to Spellman.
Iora Health, which runs several primary health practices throughout the country, is known for its focus on preventative care, Fernandopulle said in an interview with The Dartmouth. Fernandopulle was recently profiled by The New Yorker for his efforts to make health care more affordable while improving patient outcomes.
Dartmouth Health Connect will be at the "forefront" of reinventing the doctor-patient relationship by giving patients a more active role in primary care, Fernandopulle said.
"The current primary care model doesn't give patients the tools and resources to become engaged in their own health," Fernandopulle said, citing various incentives that reduce the time doctors spend with their patients. "The current model has been designed for the needs of the provider and not the patient."
Dartmouth Health Connect will likely implement preventative measures used at other Iora Health clinics, including personal health coaches, improved education, group sessions and improved inter-session communication between doctors and patients, Fernandopulle said.
"Patients absolutely love it, and outcomes are much better," Fernandopulle said of such preventative measures.
Melissa Miner, director of the College's Health Promotion and Wellness Program, said she admires the new center's improved accessibility and its promised efforts to stay in contact with patients between visits.
"Providing a resource to employees that eliminates barriers to them seeing preventative care is going to be beneficial," Miner said. "The fact that employees can have access to a really high-quality facility here is really unique, and it'll give them the opportunity to interact with the health care system in a different way."
Dartmouth Health Connect will particularly benefit employees with chronic medical conditions by providing improved access to doctors and health management services, according to Kadish.
"It's to keep people healthy who are already healthy, and to empower people with conditions to manage those conditions," Kadish said. "For people tackling complex health issues such as diabetes, having health coaching is going to be a huge help. Other primary care services don't offer that."
Dartmouth employees interviewed by The Dartmouth said they supported the center's goals, and praised its location and potential for reducing health care costs.
"It would be great to have a clinic so close," Andrila Hait-Chakrabarti, an administrative assistant in the Dean of the College's Office, said. "It's so much more convenient to have it right across the street, and a lot more people would be encouraged to go."
Chris Magliole, a Collis Center employee, said that if the center successfully reduces health care costs, it is truly "a great idea."