Houston Methodist and US Acute Care Solutions Partner for Emergency Medicine Services

Long-term partnerships focusing on high-quality patient care.

| Written by Brandon Lewis, DO, MBA, FACOEP, FACEP, President—USACS Southeast Division

Providing high-quality patient care is at the center of every decision we make at US Acute Care Solutions (USACS). For this reason, we purposely look to create long term partnerships with non-profit health systems which focus on excellence and high-quality patient care. When the opportunity arose for USACS to partner with Houston Methodist, we jumped at the chance. In just 72 hours, both leadership teams came to a mutual agreement and hit the ground running to provide a stable practice for the approximately 200 physicians and advanced practice providers (APPs) working in 18 emergency departments (EDs) across Houston Methodist, where these talented clinicians care for more than 450,000 patients annually.

Given the condensed timeline of the contract assumption, providing clear and open communication has been critical. We began by assuring clinicians their current positions remained intact and their paychecks and medical malpractice with tail coverage from their prior work would be covered. USACS leaders then initiated the onboarding process by visiting each of the sites where townhall meetings were held, listening tours were arranged, and clinician voices were heard. We were able to craft the best possible contract. And when all was said and done, approximately 99% of physicians and 95% of APPs elected to sign on with USACS.

A monitor in the emergency room - Texas Hospital Association

As operations have advanced, we are beginning to effect positive results from the implementation of our arsenal of practice support tools. Our clinical resource group (CRG), an in-house team of physicians, APPs, and analysts dedicated to ensuring successful process improvement and implementations, has been fully engaged with the onboarding process, pinpointing areas where USACS can make a significant, immediate impact. New emphasis and care models are yielding improvement in the areas of throughput, front-end processes, efficiency of care, avoidable admissions, and cutting down on door-to-doc times. Together with the one-the-ground physicians, the CRG deployed several site surveys and feedback tools, providing meaningful insight as to which areas and sites could benefit from immediate attention.

We are convinced patients in the Texas Gulf Coast region will see a continued escalation in the quality of their care.

US Acute Care Solutions (USACS) is the largest physician-owned provider of integrated acute care medicine serving 10 million patients annually at 500+ locations. Learn more at www.usacs.com.