Press
Release
BRIDGES
TO EXCELLENCE AND eHEALTH INITIATIVE FORM NEW BUSINESS AGREEMENT
-Organizations Will Maintain Separate Boards Of Directors,
Separate Identities But Will Work Collaboratively To Promote
Quality in Healthcare
For more information, contact:
Janet Firshein, 301.652.1558, [email protected]
Karla
Hurter, 571.276.3116, [email protected]
Washington,
D.C. - In a move
that could spur greater use of information technology as
a way to deliver better health care, Bridges to Excellence
(BtE), one of the largest pay-for-performance programs in
the United States, has formed a new business relationship
with the eHealth Initiative (eHI), a multi-stakeholder organization
that supports the use of health information exchange to
drive improvements in the quality, safety and efficiency
of healthcare in hundreds of communities nationwide. As
of April 3, 2006, eHI began managing BtE's operations and
serving as its administrative arm.
BtE is positioned to align with a complementary organization
with both the dedicated staff and resources to help it grow.
Under the new services agreement signed by both organizations,
BtE and eHI will maintain separate legal identities and
boards of directors but will share management support to
enhance administrative efficiency.
In keeping with that spirit, the leadership of both organizations
will remain intact. BtE will continue to be run by co-founder
Francois de Brantes, who has stepped down from leading health
initiatives at General Electric and is now devoting his
full-time efforts to helping BtE transition and grow. eHI
will continue to be led by its current CEO Janet Marchibroda.
"This is not a merger or a marriage," says BtE
President Dale Whitney, Vice President, Benefits at the
United Parcel Service. "It is a growing business relationship
between two organizations that complement one another and
have comparable goals but will remain independent entities."
"This relationship makes sense because both organizations
are working to transform health care throughout the United
States," says John Glaser, president of eHI and chief
information officer for Partners HealthCare System in Boston.
"eHI is driving transformation by engaging multiple
stakeholders at the state and local levels to mobilize health
information electronically. BtE is driving transformation
by engaging healthcare purchasers and health plans to develop
and deploy rewards to physicians for higher quality healthcare
and wider use of information technology," he says.
"You need the appropriate incentives in place if
you want to improve quality of care and encourage organizations
to invest in information technology. This relationship underscores
the value of IT in achieving the goals that BtE has set
for practice improvement," says John Tooker, MD, FACP,
executive vice president and chief executive officer of
the American College of Physicians, and president of the
eHealth Initiative Foundation.
For the most part, the members, partners and customers
of both eHI and BtE will see few changes in their interactions
with each organization. The mission, goals, objectives and
plans of each organization will remain.
Still, this new business relationship will enable each
organization to leverage a broader set of tools and resources
to promote quality improvement. eHI will inform and educate
the states, regions, and communities with which it works
of the role that Bridges plays to improve quality of care.
BtE will become part of eHI's portfolio of tools and it
will be able to benefit from exposure to a network of more
than 250 communities around the country that are engaged
in improving the quality of care by electronically interconnecting
patients, hospitals, physicians and other providers.
"We've worked to get information to providers electronically
in states and communities nationwide but what has been difficult
for eHI has been providing a sustainable model that not
only creates quality goals but also the information infrastructure
to get there," says eHI CEO Janet Marchibroda.
"There are only two tools to engage physicians and
hospitals in making significant improvements in the quality
of care they deliver - information and recognition. eHI
has focused on making the first available and BtE has focused
on making the second available. Working together, the organizations
can provide a change model for communities and physicians
across the country," says BtE's Francois de Brantes.
###
About the eHealth Initiative and its Foundation
The eHealth Initiative and its Foundation are independent,
non-profit affiliated organizations who engage the multiple
stakeholders in healthcare, including clinicians, employers,
health plans, healthcare IT suppliers, hospitals, laboratories,
patient groups, pharmaceutical and medical device companies,
pharmacies, and public health agencies, to improve the quality,
safety, and efficiency of healthcare through information
and information technology. To support states, regions and
communities that are improving healthcare through health
information exchange, eHI develops and disseminates best
practices and tools, provides seed funding support, and
provides direct technical assistance to public and private
sector leaders at the state and local levels. For more information
go to www.ehealthinitiative.org.
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