In response to shifting market realities, UCLA Health aligns with other health care providers to meet the growing demand to enhance quality, contain costs and better manage the needs of patient populations.
Photo: Ann Johansson
The landscape of today's health care marketplace is shifting, with increasing emphasis on cost-effective and value-based care that focuses on prevention, wellness and population health. We are responding to these evolving challenges and opportunities by embracing a growth strategy that may come as a surprise to many observers.
UCLA Health is a world-leading health care system, and our hospitals are among the best in the country, but we recognize that we can't do everything. So in addition to investing in what we already do well in community-based settings, a core element of our strategy is to forge alliances with partners who are as committed as we are to driving change and innovation to complement the excellent care that we provide. These partnerships involve some institutions that are among our chief competitors. But in the words of an oft-quoted proverb from Africa, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
The outcome of these alliances benefit not just our health system, enabling us to focus more of our resources to grow UCLA's core strengths, but also our partners. Together, we will serve our broader communities, expanding the continuum of care to ensure that the needs of patients are met in the most appropriate venues and in a way that contains costs and promotes patient satisfaction.
These alliances, large and small, are winning opportunities for everyone involved. For example, our agreement with Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and Select Medical to build a new 138-bed inpatient rehabilitation hospital in Century City, California Rehabilitation Institute, fills a void in the community for patients with acute rehabilitation needs. Alone, none of us could have made the investment necessary for a project like this, but together, with a common vision, purpose and goals, we have built a legacy project, a state-of-the-art regional and national center of excellence that enhances the quality of our patients' lives, promotes access and improves the overall health status of the community.
The partnership strategy also supports UCLA Health's efforts to offer more convenient access to primary care and certain specialty services in Los Angeles communities. Our UCLA Stein Eye Institute has aligned with Doheny Eye Institute to more broadly advance patient care, vision research and education. We have partnered with Accent Care to provide home-health services to our patients, and our alliance with the Motion Picture & Television Fund extends UCLA's health care resources to members of the entertainment industry. Together with Cedars-Sinai, MemorialCare Health System, Torrance Memorial Medical Center, Good Samaritan Hospital, Huntington Memorial Hospital and PIH Health, we have joined with Anthem Blue Cross to create Vivity health plan, a first-in-the-nation partnership between an insurer and a group of competing hospital systems to enhance the health of all plan members, as well as to share financial risk and gain.
These efforts are exciting, and in addition to directly serving our patients, they further enhance our research and teaching missions. They also represent uncharted territory for academic medical centers, and there are many eyes now on us to see how it will work out. We believe that we are uniquely positioned to select and establish the types of partnerships that will enable us to drive effective change for the benefit of patients and society.
John C. Mazziotta, MD (RES '81, FEL '83), PhD
Vice Chancellor, UCLA Health Sciences
CEO, UCLA Health
