Allegheny Health Network has announced a multi-year collaboration with Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins Medicine. This is in addition to a partnership announced earlier this year between the two institution’s cancer centers. This collaboration will, among other things, explore ways to be more economically efficient.
“We’re looking at group purchasing, how can we collaborate in that area to leverage our purchasing volumes and do a better job for the community that we serve in terms of getting pricing,” said John Paul, Allegheny Health Network president and CEO.
The collaboration will also examine ways to standardize supplies and electronic medical records platforms for both organizations. Both will be using the same software, undergo data analysis to identify areas in which clinical capabilities and patient outcomes can be improved. Overall, the goal is to collaborate in a number of areas.
“Clinically, and academically as well there’s an interest in making sure that with time our physicians will be eligible to have academic appointments at Hopkins and to have an exchange of trainees from both organizations,” said Tony Farah, chief medical officer at AHN.
The collaboration won’t cost AHN or Johns Hopkins any money.
“But we will be able to save through a collaborative on group purchasing,” Paul said. “At this time we don’t have a precise estimate to what we will save, but we’re estimating that for our organization next year we will save in excess of $6 million.”
This follows the in-progress cancer centers collaboration which allows the organizations to share research, participate in joint projects and consult on different cases.
