Guidehealth and Emory Healthcare Announce Population Health Collaborative to Expand Primary Care Access Across Georgia

Health system targets expansion of its affiliate physician network through higher performance and quality of care alignment

ATLANTA, GA, UNITED STATES, November 18, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Emory Healthcare, Georgia’s most comprehensive academic health system, and Emory Healthcare Network, the health system’s clinically integrated network, today announced a new population health collaborative (PHC) with Guidehealth, a nationally acclaimed, AI-enabled healthcare and value-based managed services company. This entity integrates Emory’s growing primary care service line and affiliate physician network to expand value-based care (VBC) – a focus on quality and outcomes while containing costs – to more than 350,000 individuals across Georgia. Emory Healthcare’s Population Health Collaborative is aligning with Guidehealth to accelerate performance of quality of care and overall health outcomes across its clinics and network.

In this initiative, more than 500 Emory primary care and affiliate primary care providers will offer patient care, education, research and community engagement in their locations. With a goal of seeing patients at least once a year, providers will assess patient health needs and determine their outlying risks to prevent problems and get ahead of diseases before they develop and advance. While at appointments, patients may have lab work and other screenings performed to look for chronic disease states -- such as diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol -- early in the process before patients need treatment.

The collaboration with Guidehealth will accelerate access and connectivity for Emory clinicians, who are focused on health outcomes and quality metrics.

Emory Healthcare CEO Joon Lee, MD, hailed the move as a significant step toward Emory’s mission to deliver high-quality primary care to patients, while also connecting patients to advanced specialties, when needed. “The Emory Healthcare Network and our primary care division will work together to build and scale its population health management capabilities across the state to proactively care for patients,” said Lee. “We are pleased to collaborate with Guidehealth, an organization that combines expertise, technology and a recognized clinical model to improve results while reducing administrative burden to practicing primary care physicians.”

Emory Healthcare includes more than 490 provider locations with 10 hospitals and comprises the Emory Physician Group and The Emory Healthcare Network, a clinically integrated network with more than 4,000 physicians, including more than 500 primary care physicians.

“The population health collaborative combines several strategies that will unlock a new level of performance in value-based agreements with patient care top of mind,” said Emory Healthcare Network CEO Patrick Hammond, who leads the newly formed PHC entity along with Emory Healthcare Population Health Collaborative Executive Director Tina-Ann Thompson, MD. “We evaluated a number of potential value-based care organizations, and Guidehealth stood out for a variety of reasons, including its ability to integrate its capabilities into our clinical workflows,” said Hammond.

Guidehealth has an award-winning value-based managed services platform and was recently recognized as Best in KLAS for the sixth year in a row, achieving the number-one ranking for Value-Based Care Managed Services in 2024. Its clinical support services integrate directly into provider workflows, empowering physicians to better coordinate care, reduce administrative burden and close care gaps at lower overall costs. A team of GuideHealth’s Healthguides™ virtually assist Emory affiliate network providers as they extend the reach of the practice and work closely with the health system’s clinical teams to better inform care for complex patients and their families.

“This relationship with Emory’s Population Health Collaborative marks a new era in patient-centered care across all business lines,” said Guidehealth Founder and CEO Sanjay Doddamani, MD. “By embedding the Guidehealth model within their network, we’re not only delivering value-based care at scale, but also empowering our Healthguides™ to work side by side with physicians and clinicians. Together, we will transform patient engagement, streamline care coordination and alleviate administrative burdens, ensuring a health care system where compassion and capability go hand-in-hand.”

“At Emory, we have advanced and robust data and analytics capabilities, however, to deliver value-based care results across a network of this size, we must continue to combine timely and actionable data with better predictive models,” said Alistair Erskine, MD, Emory Healthcare Chief Digital and Information Officer. “We look forward to working with Guidehealth and its ecosystem of advanced analytics and AI collaborators to leverage the infrastructure to better serve our patients, especially those with complex or unmet needs.”

Both Emory and Guidehealth leaders are currently working with practices across the system and network to implement this new model and deploy the platform capabilities, expanding access across Georgia to transform care for entire communities.

About Emory Healthcare
Emory Healthcare, with nearly 24,000 employees and 10 hospitals, is the most comprehensive academic health system in Georgia. System-wide, it has 2,796 licensed patient beds, more than 3,940 physicians practicing in more than 70 specialties, serving metro Atlanta and Georgia. It also provides services to greater Georgia through a joint venture at St. Francis–Emory Healthcare in Columbus, six regional affiliate hospitals and its clinically integrated physician network.

About Guidehealth
Guidehealth is an advanced technology-driven health services platform that partners with health systems and clinical networks to bring scale and predictable performance to value-based care across all lines of business. The physician-led company augments existing primary care capacity using innovative AI-based protocols, remotely embedded Healthguides™, and a meticulously designed framework to predict those patients most in need of support in and beyond the exam room. For more information, please visit www.guidehealth.com.

press@guidehealth.com
Guidehealth Media
Guidehealth