Divide and conquer may have worked for the Romans, but in creating a health care empire, it is sometimes better to take the opposite approach.
Ralph Muller, the recently hired CEO of the University Health System, is leading an expansion of several key centers.
The plan includes reorganizing and thus bringing together services offered by various departments into a single, physical location in an attempt to ease communication among both patients and physicians. The new system aspires to be more cost-effective -- which is particularly crucial for a health system that was only recently pulled out of the red.
"The more you're able to bring services together in a consolidated facility... the more you're able to provide patients service with as few stops as possible," Executive Director of the Penn Cancer Center Beverly Ginsburg said.
Currently, the focus is on the heart and cancer programs at UPHS.
Muller recently dedicated another floor in the Penn Founders Pavilion to cardiac patient services -- where most other in-patient heart care services are already housed -- in an effort to centralize the division.
According to Michael Parmacek, chief of the Cardiovascular Division at the Medical Center, there are also efforts underway to identify new spaces for outpatient cardiac services. The Penn Tower Hotel is under consideration, as is a new medical building that is still in the planning stages.
Parmacek has said that this change will provide "one-stop shopping" for heart patients and eliminate "frustrations and inefficiencies."
Restructuring in this way will also help research, she explained, as grouping physicians together who practice in similar fields allows for a more efficient working environment.
For instance, the reorganization of heart care services will facilitate the creation of a common database -- available to both clinicians and researchers -- that will be controlled by privacy laws.
The cancer program at UPHS is also in the midst of a transition.
The 12th floor of the Penn Tower has recently been tagged for gastrointestinal cancer, neuro-oncology and other cancer services. Most of the other cancer services, as well as support services like nutrition and counseling, are already in the Penn Tower.
In addition to new homes, the cancer center is also finding some new faces.
Two female breast cancer surgeons are among the 20 new cancer specialists recently hired for the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. One of them, Marcia Boraas, assumed her new post yesterday, just as undergraduates started classes.
The Cardiovascular Department has not yet made any new hires, but Parmacek said that it is in the process of analyzing the need for new doctors.
"We have a wealth of subspecialists," Parmacek said. What they need now is primary cardiologists, he added.
Expanding the heart center will not only allow UPHS to provide better patient services and to improve its research opportunities, but it will also aid in revitalizing its image.
"People will start to recognize what's already here," Parmacek said. "Our goal is to take this to the next level... to be recognized on national and regional levels."
Both he and Ginsburg spoke of the importance of the Health System's "physical presence."
"It makes a more impressive statement" to walk in and see multiple services in one place, Parmacek said.
"The look and the feel of the environment is important," Ginsburg added.
