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RIAFP
1445 Wampanoag Trail #205
East Providence, RI 02915
(phone) 401-647-3595
(fax) 401-647-3597
info@riafp.org
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2008
RIAFP Legislative Agenda
Would you like to
be involved in the process? Let me know at info@riafp.org
SAVE
THE DATE
The RIAFP Annual Meeting is scheduled for
June 6 - 8 at Crowne Plaza in Warwick, RI.
Get the Brochure Online
HERE!
Pay Online With Credit Card or Paypal
Thanks
to a great list of speaker, and all the folks who have donated door
prizes, we are expecting a fantastic educational event, as well as
a lot of fun and free prizes.
The
Saturday, June 7th dinner will be capped of with well-known local
comic Michael Petit.
RIAFP Policy Brief: 9/20/07
Will merger threaten primary care?
THE PROPOSED MERGER of Lifespan and Care New England may well
herald a new era in Rhode Island. The union of these organizations
makes the proposed move of the Brown (Warren Alpert) Medical School
to the South Providence area a much more powerful synergy, which potentially
brings together big medicine, big research and high-tech industry.
MORE

.January
31, 2007
Providence
Journal OP-ED
How to Build a Health Care System 101
Learn
more about Medicare Part D at the
new
Department of Health Website:
http://www.health.ri.gov/medicare
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Submitted
by Matthew Burke, MD
Merger:
The
hot topic at the most recent Primary Care Physician's Advisory Committee
was the impending merger of the Lifespan and Care New England, a move
that would administratively enjoin Rhode Island (including Hasbro),
Woman and Infant's, The Miriam, Kent, Newport and Butler Hospitals.
This merger would unite nearly half the hospitals in the state and the
majority of inpatient beds and ancillary medical services. As the merger
has progressed it has gained janitorial blessing and has passed federal
antitrust investigations enhancing the likelihood of successful passage.
As this occurs it is imperative to evaluate the potential impact this
merger will have on the landscape of primary care in the State of Rhode
Island.
In summation a long and diplomatic, but passionate, back-and-forth occurred
at the Primary Care Physician's Advisory Committee between a regular
panel of internists, family physicians, pediatricians and obstetricians
directly querying the CEOs of Lifespan and Care New England. Scant evidence
exists regarding the impact of hospital consolidation on access to care,
but this evidence does support reduced access to care, which disproportionately
affects minority citizens. Many of the questions asked of the individuals
helming the merger probed issues of "balanced co-development"
with the recognition that the merger is all but impossible to block
at this stage. Hope towards the viability of primary care was instead
directed at ensuring the leaders of the merger were made aware of the
utility of primary care as the proven best modality of reducing cost
and improving outcomes in the health care world and the marginalization
of our field in planning the consolidation of tertiary and quaternary
care centers will negatively effect all of us engaged in health. And
we will not only be endangering the quality of patient care by reducing
access, but this very reduction in access will further shift care to
tertiary centers driving up cost and making the very merger that is
proposed potentially less financially viable than intended.
If I may be so bold as to editorialize, I am not exclusively anti-merger.
The merger will streamline administrative costs, and I believe objectively
and diligently search for redundancy and waste in the system thereby
saving cost. However the above noted implications for primary care are
concerning and would potentially move us in a backward direction. Only
through the "balanced co-development" of institutional focus
and teaching of primary care, financial support and teaching in outpatient
primary care centers (especially those engaged in GME) and increased
cooperatively with the only remaining Brown University residency program
(Family Medicine at Memorial Hospital) will the merged entity responsibly
offer due diligence to a community of primary care physicians without
whom continued reform and improvement in health care cannot be achieved.
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