The Legacy of Independent Hospitals and TPC: Serving Communities with Dedication and Excellence

Independent hospitals have long been integral to the fabric of their communities, providing essential healthcare services, fostering close relationships, and maintaining a steadfast commitment to the well-being of the populations they serve. Through TPC, these hospitals collaborate to enhance their impact, ensuring high-quality, cost-effective healthcare remains accessible to all. Together, TPC and its Member hospitals have created a legacy of innovation, resilience, and profound community impact.

A Shared Commitment to Community Health

The legacies of independent hospitals and TPC are deeply intertwined, rooted in their shared mission of serving communities with compassion and excellence. TPC was founded to bring these institutions together, leveraging their collective strengths to amplify their ability to provide exceptional care. This partnership ensures that Member hospitals not only meet the needs of their patients today but are well-positioned to adapt to the healthcare challenges of tomorrow.

For TPC, the legacy is one of leadership and collaboration. Since 1985, TPC has empowered its Members to work together in key areas to improve their financial, operational and clinical performance, achieving exponentially more as a group than they could individually. This collaboration underscores TPC’s role as a visionary force in community-based healthcare.

Highlighting the Contributions of Member Hospitals

Baxter Health: Serving Since 1963
Since its opening in 1963, Baxter Health in Mountain Home, Arkansas, has been a pivotal healthcare provider for its region. Known for its personalized care and state-of-the-art facilities, Baxter Health continues to be a trusted institution for countless families. The hospital's commitment to improving health outcomes is evident in its range of services and community-focused initiatives.

Citizens Medical Center: A Legacy of Care Since 1956
Citizens Medical Center in Victoria, Texas, has been dedicated to serving its community since 1956. With a strong emphasis on patient-centered care, Citizens Medical Center offers a broad spectrum of medical services. The hospital's long-standing presence in the community highlights its role as a reliable healthcare provider and a vital community resource.

Hendrick Health: A Century of Excellence
Just celebrating its 100th anniversary, Hendrick Health in Abilene, Texas, exemplifies the enduring impact of independent hospitals. Established in 1924, Hendrick Health has been a cornerstone of its community, providing exceptional care and continually expanding its services. This century-long legacy is a powerful reminder of the vital role independent hospitals play in sustaining community health.

Medical Center Health System: Providing 75 Years of Healthcare
Founded in 1949, Medical Center Health System in Odessa, Texas, has been a beacon of health and hope as it celebrates 75 years of service. The hospital's comprehensive care includes advanced diagnostic services, specialized treatments, and a strong focus on community health. This enduring legacy underscores the importance of independent hospitals in providing sustained, high-quality care.

Midland Health: A Community Staple Since 1950
Midland Health in Midland, Texas, has been at the heart of its community since 1950. Known for its exceptional healthcare services and innovative programs, Midland Health has consistently prioritized the health and well-being of its residents. The hospital's long history of service reflects its deep connection to the community and its commitment to excellence.

Peterson Health: Celebrating 75 Years of Service
Peterson Health recently marked its 75th anniversary, a testament to its unwavering commitment to the community of Kerrville, Texas. Since its founding, Peterson Health has grown into a comprehensive health system, offering a wide variety of services from primary care to advanced surgical procedures.

Shannon Health: Over 90 Years of Healthcare Excellence
For over 90 years, Shannon Health in San Angelo, Texas, has been a pillar of healthcare in its region. With a broad range of services, Shannon Health is dedicated to improving health outcomes and enhancing the quality of life for its patients. Its rich history underscores the hospital's role as a long-standing fixture in the region, deeply embedded in the community's fabric.

United Regional Health Care System: A Modern Healthcare Leader
While United Regional Health Care System officially formed in 1997, its legacy of care extends much further back. The hospitals that came together to form United Regional had been providing essential healthcare services to the Wichita Falls, Texas, community since the early 1900s. Today, United Regional continues to lead with comprehensive medical services.

TPC: 40 Years of Transforming Healthcare
This year, TPC proudly celebrates 40 years of empowering independent hospitals and transforming community healthcare. Founded in 1985 by a group of visionary healthcare leaders, TPC began as a simple yet powerful idea: hospitals working together to achieve more collectively than they could individually. Over the decades, TPC has evolved into a trusted partnership of community-based healthcare organizations, dedicated to preserving independence and enhancing the quality of care.

TPC: Building a Future of Healthcare Excellence

The legacy of independent hospitals and TPC is one of resilience, dedication, and progress. Together, they are not just preserving their rich histories but also shaping the future of healthcare—ensuring that every community has access to compassionate, exceptional care for generations to come.

TPC Members Receive Vizient Impact Standardization Recognition

Congratulations to all TPC Members for receiving recognition for participation in Vizient’s 2023 Impact Standardization programs. These programs were put in place to help hospitals improve the process by which they procure commonly purchased goods. Through their focused efforts, participants create purchasing efficiencies, reduce product variation and achieve cost savings.

Executive Savings Award

• Hendrick Health

• Shannon Health

• TPC

Participant Leader Award

• Baxter Health

• Medical Center Health System

• Midland Health

• United Regional Health Care System

Participation Plaque Award

• Citizens Medical Center

• Peterson Health

To learn more about the program, visit Vizient Impact Standardization Programs.

TPC’s 2023 Triumph: Surpassing $70 Million in Value for Members

TPC has delivered exceptional value to its Members in 2023, achieving over $70 million in total value. This significant milestone reflects TPC’s commitment to enhancing operational efficiencies and financial performance for its Members in the healthcare sector. Despite ongoing industry challenges, the organization’s focused strategies and collaborative efforts have led to this remarkable success.

Big Wins in a Year of Focused Effort

TPC’s achievements in 2023 were grounded in the priorities set by the Members themselves, reflecting the health systems’ shared vision. The focus areas were diverse and strategic, targeting the most significant opportunities for value creation and performance enhancement.

Supply Chain Excellence

TPC navigated through market complexities in Supply Chain to secure distinctive value and effective solutions in plasma products, essential pharmaceuticals, phlebotomy, reprocessing, and implantable ports. Additionally, collaboration led to optimizing value in total joints, reinforcing TPC’s commitment to driving for results in difficult physician preference items (PPI) categories.

Revenue Cycle Optimization

Revenue Cycle saw remarkable advancements with the integration of comparative analytics and automation, and by bolstering Clinical Revenue Cycle management programs. TPC’s activities to help support Members’ managed care strategies further demonstrated the power of shared learning.

Purchased Services and ERP Integration

TPC’s pursuit of value extended to Purchased Services, where enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, capital equipment acquisition, pharmacy benefits management (PBM) strategies, and audit recovery were areas of significant achievement. This holistic approach ensured that every dollar spent was an investment in quality and efficiency.

Quality Performance Improvement

TPC’s commitment to quality performance improvement is unwavering. With Member participation and implementation of the Clinical Database (CDB) now at 100%, we have been able to take our engagement to the next level to dive deeper into metrics to understand commonalities and differences, and to drive our focus in identifying opportunities that can impact both quality and finances. We are excited to report that we achieved a 22% improvement over baseline in aggregate Quality & Accountability ranking performance for Members that are fully implemented on the tool.

A Reflection of Systemness and Collaboration

The year’s successes were not mere coincidences but the result of TPC’s ethos of Systemness – the collaborative spirit that binds its Members. This foundational principle was evident in the “Fall Classic” meetings for many of our Member-led committees, which served as crucial planning sessions, setting the stage for another year of outstanding performance.

Gratitude for Exceptional Leadership

TPC’s Member committees, a driving force behind our operational prowess, owe their effectiveness to the exceptional individuals who lead them. Their strategic guidance has been pivotal in steering TPC towards its goals.

TPC extends its deepest gratitude to the 2023 committee chairs, whose dedication and foresight have been invaluable.

Our 2023 TPC Member Leadership

Advisory Board: Phyllis Cowling (URHCS), Shane Plymell (SH)

Executive Steering Committee: Jeremey Walker (HH)

Clinical Steering Committee: Pam Bradshaw (SH), Susan Greenwood (HH)

Supply Chain Council: Julia Blanchard (BH), Adam Wood (HH)

Cardiology CVAT: Denise Hessler (SEH), Angie Wagner (HH)

Laboratory CVAT: Kyle Cooper (HH)

Medical/Wound Care CVAT: Stephanie Free (BH), Denise Hessler (SEH)

Pharmacy CVAT: Nathan Wooten (URHCS), Stephanie McCann (SH)

Perioperative CVAT: Heather Hess (HH), Becky Hartley (SH)

Revenue Cycle Council: Tave Kelly (HH), Jeri Kaspar (URHCS)

Facilities Taskforce: Jesse Garza (URHCS)

Human Resources/Committed Insurance Program: Heather Hormel (URHCS)

Physician Enterprise Management: David Stephenson (HH)

Quality Advisory Team: Nancy Hill (MMH), Shelley Moser (URHCS)

TPC’s 2023 narrative is one of remarkable triumphs in the face of a dynamic healthcare landscape. The synergy between TPC and its Members has met and surpassed expectations, setting a new benchmark for collective success in the healthcare sector.

The Benefits of Partnership over Acquisition for Rural Hospitals

For citizens living in non-urban areas, smaller, rural hospitals are often the only source of medical care within hours of their home. With more than 46 million residents living in rural areas in 2020, a large percentage of the U.S. population relies on these local providers for services and employment. However, due to a multitude of societal and industry factors, many of these community hospitals are considering closure or acquisition, which can have far-reaching consequences for the entire community.

While there are many factors contributing to rural hospital closures and acquisitions, thoughtful and strategic partnership can be a beneficial alternative.

Why Are Rural Hospitals Experiencing Acquisition Pressure?

Smaller, rural hospitals are facing a number of challenges in the current healthcare landscape. One factor is the changing demographics of these rural areas. As populations age and younger people move away, rural hospitals have a harder time attracting and retaining patients and employees. This has a cascading effect, placing additional strain on the hospital’s finances, which in turn impedes investment into new technology and equipment.

Additionally, the increasing cost of healthcare delivery causes rural hospitals to face a higher burden of uncompensated care, as many rural patients experience higher rates of chronic illness and are often uninsured, underinsured, or on Medicaid. What’s more, even if an individual has employer-sponsored insurance, it’s often with a high deductible that has a high out-of-pocket cost, discouraging them from using the hospital at all. Further complicating the dilemma, the cost of providing care is rising due to factors such as labor shortages and inflation.

These examples support the findings of one University of North Carolina rural health research report: almost 30 percent of all U.S. hospitals were operating in the red as of 2018—the majority of which were found in rural communities.

In addition to these factors, recent healthcare policy trends — like the Affordable Care Act requiring service enhancements with reduced costs and the Medicare reimbursement rate changing — are applying additional pressure to the situation, creating a grim outlook and perfect storm for an acquisition.

Choosing Another Way: Partnership Over Acquisition

At TPC, we want community hospitals to thrive and remain independent. But being independent doesn’t mean you have to be on your own. By working collaboratively, stand alone hospitals that choose partnership unlock a myriad of advantages that help maximize efficiency.

At TPC, our commitment to this cooperative approach is manifested in four key areas:

1.  Sourcing Synergy

The power of unity is exemplified through our partnership model's first pillar: collective sourcing. By pooling the resources and collective purchasing might of like-minded community hospitals, we create a compelling case for suppliers. This, combined with data intelligence, enables us to negotiate with the supplier community and secure the best value for our Members. It's more than just cost savings; it's about ensuring that vital resources are acquired efficiently, ultimately bolstering the quality of care delivered.

2. Performance Improvement

Our Members actively engage in collaborative endeavors aimed at elevating healthcare standards. Within strategic committees, they collectively focus on pivotal aspects such as the quality of care, patient experience, and labor management. This collaboration extends beyond brainstorming and discussions; it's substantiated by cutting-edge data tools. These tools empower our Members to benchmark their performance against their peers, fostering an environment of continuous improvement and ensuring that our hospitals maintain a high standard of healthcare excellence.

3. Optimizing Revenue Cycles

The financial challenges faced by our hospitals are met with proactive solutions through TPC's partnership model. Despite resource constraints, our Members gain access to expanded bandwidth and the expertise required to evaluate and implement best practices. By optimizing revenue generation and management, hospitals can secure their financial stability, ensuring they can continue to provide vital services to their communities.

4. Harnessing Comparative Analytics

In an era driven by data, our Members harness the collective strength of TPC to access a wealth of intelligence. Together, they embark on a journey to collect, analyze, compare, and glean insights from financial, clinical, and operational data across the entire membership. This collaborative approach to data-driven decision-making unlocks a multitude of improvement opportunities for all Members. It ensures that rural hospitals not only keep pace with the evolving healthcare landscape but also proactively adapt and thrive.

The benefits of partnership over acquisition for independent hospitals are multifaceted and impactful. Through TPC's partnership model, Member hospitals unite to enhance their sourcing capabilities, elevate performance standards, optimize revenue cycles, and harness the power of comparative analytics. Acting on our core values of accountability, excellence, and integrity, we become an integral force in boosting our Members' ability to deliver exceptional healthcare services. Together, our Members fortify their positions in the healthcare ecosystem, ensuring that the vital services they provide to their communities remain resilient and sustainable.

Achieving More Together

Ultimately, we believe relationships are the conduit to creating familiarity, trust, and mutual accountability. Our primary objective is to empower our Members in achieving what may be beyond their individual capacities. Partnering with TPC provides a robust platform that actively bolsters our Members endeavors, resulting in cost savings, operational efficiencies, optimization, and superior quality.

Harness the power of unity while preserving your unique independence. Reach out today to discover how partnering with TPC can transform your healthcare institution for the better and help you serve your community like never before.

The Potential of AI in Healthcare for Clinical and Operational Outcomes

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a key technology with many applications across every industry. Healthcare has been adopting it increasingly as a tool to support clinical and operational outcomes. AI in healthcare has significant potential, with the power to evolve and reshape how the industry uses and analyzes data.

So, what are the key use cases that will make the most difference in healthcare?

Use Cases for AI in Healthcare

For AI to be a useful tool in healthcare, there is focus on its practicality and how it can leverage data and reduce manual work. In these applications, the big fear is that it will replace human resources and intelligence. However, that’s not the case. Rather, it serves as a way to augment it. AI processing and analyzing capacity is faster than what human brains are capable of. It can surface trends, outliers, and patterns that assist human decision-making.   In other words, AI is a compliment to human labor.

AI in Diagnosis and Treatment

Machine learning is a type of AI that centers around data and algorithms to simulate how humans learn, improving accuracy as it ingests more information. This framework lends itself to supporting clinical diagnosis and treatment. It has already begun to demonstrate value across many specialties and diseases, including:

• Oncology: It can detect tumors faster, which one study found it could do so accurately 88% of the time.

• Pathology: With a shortage of these clinicians, machine learning can fill the gap by increasing the speed of profile scanning.

• Strokes: Algorithms can differentiate between resting and stroke-related paralysis and predict the recovery curve of ischemic stroke patients.

• Diabetes: Machine learning can assist with pre-diabetes screening, predicting treatable complications, and identifying genetic markers for the disease.

AI in Population Health Management

Other types of AI, such as Natural Language Processing (NLP), enables computers to interpret and use human language by utilizing statistical models to estimate the probability of a sequence of words. NLP particularly excels in assimilating extensive medical records to furnish diagnostic outcomes. Developers can imbue systems with the capability to review millions of EHR records to look for abbreviations, words, or phrases associated with a disease. Within minutes, these NLP-powered systems can identify patients with certain conditions. This can be helpful in the evolving world of population health management.

Another way that NLP supports healthcare diagnosis and treatment is by overcoming current limitations relating to procedure and diagnosis codes that lack specificity. Nuances in conditions aren’t reflective in these codes, but NLP can scrub unstructured data and discover, highlight, and bring attention to these nuances

AI in Healthcare Operation

Outside the clinical capabilities, AI offers many benefits on the business side of healthcare. The most widely used application is automation. When AI is part of software programs, it can eliminate the need for humans to perform mundane tasks, freeing up staff to focus on higher level work, which can improve overall productivity and efficiency.

AI can also improve internal workflows, so they are streamlined and less of a strain on resources. Examples include:

• Eliminating manual data entry through automation

• Providing medical coding support

• Automating eligibility checks and prior authorizations

• Managing and monitoring claims

• Processing invoices

• Migrating data between legacy and newer systems

In addition, AI is capable of in-depth data analysis. Hospitals have massive amounts of data related to all aspects of business operations. Deep evaluation of it can lead to many insights. Examples include:

• Supply chain management: AI can process millions of data points relating to current inventory, past usage trends, and forecasted needs to deliver recommendations for reducing costs.

• Patient flow and staffing: AI can combine and analyze patient trends as well as internal resources to provide more accurate staffing models.

• Asset management: Hospitals have numerous assets to track and maintain, and by capturing and assessing data, it can provide better understanding of asset longevity and when replacement will be necessary.

AI in Healthcare Has Great Promise

As the use of AI increases in healthcare, its ability to deliver value multiplies. There is still much to discover, and challenges related to data privacy and security, training algorithms with richer data sets, and costs associated with having a sophisticated platform are still present. Those using it also have reservations about its capabilities, so AI still needs to “prove” itself to be reliable and consistent.

Looking forward, it will be a crucial part of the future of healthcare, enabling organizations to improve patient care and operational efficiency.

Anticipated Community-Based Healthcare Trends in 2023

As we move one year further out from the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the healthcare arena continues to shift. What are the anticipated trends for 2023, and why does this matter for community hospitals? 

Staffing and Workforce Issues

It appears that staffing shortages are here to stay through the end of 2023. Demand is particularly high for professionals such as nurses, unit coordinators, and technicians.

Potential reasons for the shortages include the commonly mentioned issues of burnout and increased turnover. With an estimated 20 percent of healthcare workers leaving the field during the pandemic, this continued shortage should come as no surprise.

Community hospitals can plan to help address the shortage in several ways. It is easiest to start by retaining existing staff as opposed to recruiting new staff. Hospitals have been creative in their efforts to work with staff and combat shortages by offering flexible schedules and leave policies to employees and creating new staffing roles. Additionally, many are prioritizing investments in employee mental health and well-being.

Data Use for Coordinating Care Improvements
Electronic health records (EHR) have been useful in increasing accessibility of healthcare records and ensuring universally available data. As we enter 2023, there will be added emphasis on changing the way we approach technology to make care more patient-centered.

Data does little good if it cannot be converted to useful information to create meaningful change. The ability to combine data from various sources offers the opportunity to dive deeper for added insights – and the increased emphasis placed on the role of artificial intelligence (AI) tools will help manage and process the colossal amount of data efficiently. Community hospitals can use AI to implement evidence-based practices, where patient preferences are taken into account with a combination of provider expertise and best available evidence.

Another major trend community hospitals can use to improve care is remote patient monitoring (RPM) services, which provide real-time data on vitals, blood glucose levels, weight, and more. These services can help reduce the number of in-person visits and streamline the care process.

Data Security

The growth in global data continues to explode and is anticipated to grow more than twelve-fold between 2015 and 2025 to an astounding 181 zetabytes. Our industry is rightly expressing growing concern over data security, especially considering how much of it is available and the sensitive nature of the data itself.

Some healthcare entities are discussing the potential to tackle this security concern in 2023 through blockchain technology, which helps make digital records “transparent, authenticated, and unchangeable” while offering secure data sharing.

While some data security efforts may seem overwhelming to smaller community hospitals, they can still benefit from changing their approach to risk analysis by focusing more on identifying devices with old operating systems and software that may be more susceptible to attack. In addition there are opportunities via security assessments to find and address potential weak points or through partnership with a Virtual Chief Information Security Officer (vCISO), who can regularly assess security measures.

Improving Patient Engagement

One of the big questions in healthcare lately has been, “how can we better motivate the patient to become involved in the care process?” Better engagement of patients can improve outcomes and quality of life.

As mentioned, we expect to see more of a focus on engagement consumables such as wearable devices and apps, which will experience mass projected growth. A greater emphasis on equipping patients with the proper knowledge and technological tools to manage the clinical, financial, and administrative facets of their care will also be useful for community hospitals in 2023.

Ensure a Better 2023 with TPC
The healthcare industry is constantly evolving. At TPC, we provide Members with a network of support and a selection of options to help them stay ahead of current trends and succeed throughout the challenges they face. Your community hospital can benefit from our services starting in 2023 and beyond. Learn more about how TPC can support you and how we’re “Stronger Together” by contacting us today.