Across the nation over the past decade, we have seen a dramatic shift in the amount of care being delivered in ambulatory settings. This increase is also occurring at Penn Medicine, where 57 percent of our business comes from outpatient care. As a result, we have developed a stronger ambulatory care presence than any other health system in the region. Our investments in destination outpatient facilities have served as a cornerstone to build and maintain our reputation as the area’s health care provider of choice in the 100-mile radius from downtown Philadelphia, spanning from Central Pennsylvania to the Jersey shore.
As we look ahead to how our outpatient enterprise will continue to grow and evolve – and lead the way in the delivery of outpatient services ranging from preventative care to highly-specialized procedures – I’m both proud of what we’ve accomplished and excited about what lies ahead.
Over the past five years, through our newer ambulatory facilities in places like Valley Forge, Southern Chester County, and Cherry Hill, we have established greater coordination between the care patients can get close to home and specialty services that require a trip to one of Penn Medicine’s six hospitals. That’s better for patients, who can return quickly to recuperate at home, and it has also allowed us to devote more inpatient capacity to caring for the sickest patients who require the most complex care.
Next, we look to our plans for a new Penn Medicine Radnor facility, which recently passed a crucial development milestone with the approval from the Radnor Planning Commission, and will be located across the street from the current Penn Medicine Radnor, a mainstay of care on the Main Line for nearly 25 years.
At 250,000 square feet, the new facility will be larger than some community hospitals. Facility and equipment investments mean patients in our system can now receive highly sophisticated procedures and treatments, like radiation therapy, that were historically hospital-based, just miles from home. Technology innovations and improvements in clinical techniques – along with a shift in how providers are paid for this care – have allowed many procedures and surgeries which once required hospital stays, to be done on a same-day basis in ambulatory facilities.
In all we do, we aim to ensure convenient care for patients – for outpatient services, that begins with easy-to-reach locations that correspond with patients’ natural travel patterns. Penn Medicine Cherry Hill, for instance, is located only minutes from two major highways linking suburban areas throughout South Jersey. About 75 percent of patients who seek care at Radnor live within 15 miles, but the facility’s location also makes it an easy-to-reach destination for patients from farther afield – from Montgomery County, for example, and even patients from areas of our neighboring states. Each of these facilities has been imagined as its own self-contained campus, each with its own easy parking and other patient-friendly conveniences.
Next, we drive value for our patients by co-locating services within these large multispecialty sites. Patients can see their physicians – from primary care to specialists, many of whom also practice in our hospitals – as well as get lab tests and imaging studies all in one place. Related specialists are grouped together – for instance, musculoskeletal care experts who may be drawn from different departments – allowing patients to get input from a diverse, collaborative team. Our newest facilities take inspiration from the 10-year-old Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine, which set a new bar for combining technology and patient-centered care in a fresh, modern facility that quickly improved patient outcomes by connecting care providers in new, more intuitive ways.
Behind the scenes, we’ve established innovative operational pathways that unify providers and practices to help improve efficiency, lower costs, and seamlessly coordinate patient care. Together with our common EHR system that provides the same clinical information to all our providers across the health system, we are developing the integrated health care delivery system of the future, ensuring that providers in the community are able to see the complete care continuum of their patients.
Importantly, our outpatient care model also helps curtail health care costs overall, by reducing duplication of services, re-testing, and other expenses that come with fragmented care delivery. Take the example of a patient with a chronic illness, such as diabetes or heart disease: one recent national study found that if that patient gets most of their care within one health system, it costs half as much as a patient who receives less than 50 percent of their care within one system. It is this efficiency and reduction in waste through care coordination that will help us to bend the cost curve.
These principles will guide us as we continue to shape our footprint across the entire region we serve.