Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health and Southwestern Vermont Health Care signed an agreement earlier this month to establish a group of multi-specialty physicians to care for patients in southwestern Vermont, according to Kevin Robinson, director of media affairs for SVHC. The two groups of health care providers expect the collaboration, known as Dartmouth-Hitchcock Bennington, to attract more doctors to SVHC and eventually resolve its current physician shortage.
Under the agreement which was announced in an Oct. 27 Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health press release approximately 60 doctors currently employed by SVHC will now work for Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health in SVHC hospitals and clinics, creating a "nucleus" of physicians within the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Bennington group, Robinson said.
The current nonbinding "memorandum of understanding" between the two health care systems will evolve into a tangible product when a joint operating committee is established to craft the final agreement, Robinson said. The committee will include five members from Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health and five from SVHC.
The target timeframe for completion of the process is July 2012, according to Robinson.
Robinson emphasized that the two organizations will collaborate gradually, and that patients may not notice an immediate change because they will have the same doctors and receive similar care. The expectation is that the services provided will expand in the future, Robinson said.
"Dartmouth has a strong reputation in this area, as do we," Robinson said. "This combination should make people feel even more confident about the quality of health care."
The agreement has been popular so far, as the need for health care reform has prompted smaller physician groups and hospitals to look for larger hospitals to partner with, Robinson said.
"You need to have a network of providers for health care that more or less runs the gamut from primary to high-end specialty care," he said. "Dartmouth is on the forefront of health care reform thinking, and that will make our system better positioned for coming changes."
Robinson cited several key motivations for SVHC to collaborate with Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health, including the academic medical center's ability to recruit and retain more physicians than a smaller community hospital.
"We've done a great job, but having a pipeline to a medical school is a very useful thing," Robinson said. "Many physicians who come out of training want to continue working in the environment they were trained in,"
Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health's reputation for "outstanding quality of care" is another draw for SVHC, according to Robinson.
Robinson said that the two organizations will easily establish a working relationship because both have a similar dedication to quality and improvement.
SVHC and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health began discussing the project in May, according to Robinson.
"It is nonbinding," he said. "If at the end of the process either side decides it is not in their best interest to continue, there is no obligation."
SVHC is a non-profit health care organization that serves communities in Vermont, Massachusetts and New York, according to its website. The Southwestern Vermont Medical Center, Southwestern Vermont Regional Cancer Center and the Centers for Living and Rehabilitation are among facilities that comprise SVHC.
