Health System moves to cover entire region

Its recent expansion is part of a plan to be 'big enough to be the best.' From the Medical School to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania to doctors in southern New Jersey, the University of Pennsylvania Health System now affects health care throughout the Philadelphia region and beyond. Formed in 1993, the Health System has already established ties with many area physicians and several hospitals. The system is currently in the process of acquiring two more area hospitals, and Chief Executive Officer William Kelly said officials are planning further expansion into other areas of health care. Those efforts have made the Medical Center -- which encompasses the School of Medicine and HUP -- just one part of a much larger structure. And now, the system is looking to expand into other areas, such as nursing homes, rehabilitation facilities and home health care organizations, Kelly said. The system currently owns two long-term care facilities and two home health care organizations. "Hospitals are not just where it ends," he said, adding that the system is working toward a "continuum of care." The original development of the Health System in 1993 came in response to greater national trends in health care, especially toward managed care. Kelley, who also serves as dean of the Medical School, explained that the original acquisitions began with a physician-oriented strategy. This involved the formation of a primary care physician network, multi-specialty satellite facilities and a management service organization to support physicians who are not directly in the system, Kelley said. But the Health System then began to look toward more institutional relationships -- those with other regional hospitals. The system has continued its connection with its core affiliates, including the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the Veterans Affairs Medical Center -- relationships that began long before 1993. But to fulfill its goal of being a "model health care delivery system," Kelley explained that "we have to have relationships with community hospitals." The system must be "identified the healthiest hospitals with the best reputations," Kelley added. The Health System is now contractually affiliated with five community hospitals, with a sixth expected to join that list soon. This contractual relationship allows the institutions to "collaborate on other specific clinical and educational endeavors," according to a statement from the Health System. In 1995, the system took on full ownership of Presbyterian Hospital. And in the last two months, the system signed letters of intent to buy both Phoenixville Hospital and Pennsylvania Hospital. After the system signed its letter reagrding Phoenixville Hospital, spokesperson Lori Doyle said the relationships Penn was developing will help to create "an integrative health care delivery system." That delivery system would allow all the patients in managed care programs within the Health System to be treated and hospitalized in their own communities, Doyle explained. With thoughts of further expansion, Kelley explained that "everything we do has more risk, but the biggest risk is to not do anything." Five years ago, the Medical Center chose to move forward, instead of staying with the status quo. That decision has led to record patient admissions within the system, according to Kelley. But he added that the system doesn't plan to continue its expansion just to become the biggest system of its type. Kelley said he wants the system to be "just big enough to be the best."

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