Byline: PRICE COLMAN ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS STAFF WRITER
Centura Health has forged the first key link in establishing a statewide network connecting the Provenant and PorterCare health care systems.
Centura, the newly named management company joining the Catholic Provenant organization and the Adventist PorterCare group, and Kremmling Memorial Hospital District have created a network to coordinate health care delivery in Grand, Summit and Jackson counties.
'It certainly is something that we want to try to create a template for in a lot of places we have impact on,' said Bob Wallace, administrator of outreach services for Provenant.
'There are a lot of things going on we're looking at, particularly in southern Colorado, where PorterCare has a presence and we have a presence,' Wallace said.
'I think you'll see more of this kind of cooperative.'
Provenant, which is part of the Sisters of Charity Health Services Colorado system, owns and operates Provenant St. Anthony Central and North hospitals in Denver, and also runs Penrose-St. Francis Hospital in Colorado Springs, St. Mary-Corwin Regional Medical Center in Pueblo and St. Thomas More Hospital in Canon City.
The PorterCare system, which owns and runs PorterCare Hospital, PorterCare Hospital-Littleton and PorterCare Hospital-Avista in the metro area, also manages hospitals and nursing homes in La Jara and Walsenburg.
The Centura-Kremmling move also turns up the heat on others, such as the Columbia-HealthOne joint venture, that intend to establish statewide health care networks.
'I think that as the Centura system begins to build stronger bonds across the rural part of the state between its new components that it will stimulate other companies seeking to develop statewide networks,' said James Hertel, publisher of Colorado Managed Care newsletter.
Health care systems such as Centura and Columbia-HealthOne see value in statewide networks because they make the systems more attractive to managed care insurers and thus can ensure business for the systems.
Walter Sackett, administrator and chief executive of the Kremmling Hospital District, said the rural network should translate into better care for patients in those areas and cost savings for the system.
'It allows us to coordinate with physicians on both sides of the county and improve patient care by caring for them locally when we have the capability,' he said.
Savings should come through sharing personnel and management services and through joint purchasing, Sackett said.
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