Remaining Independent Through Interdependence: A Case Study of the New England Collaborative Health Network (68H)

Independent hospitals are seeking alternative strategies to remaining financially viable for the communities they serve. Some are choosing assimilation with a larger networked hospital or health system, some are choosing to go it alone, while others have chosen the interdependence way through collaborations, cooperatives or alliances. The names may be different but are synonymous with the idea of owning a shared network without the need for ownership of each other's hospital. Unfortunately, Vermont and New England have had their share of collaborative networks fail for different reasons. Therefore, presenters have researched a couple handful of longstanding successful networks and will share what they learned and outline the critical success factors from their discovery meetings.

This session will provide a recap of the New England Collaborative Health Network's (NECHN) evolution from concept to legal corporation and lessons learned, along with one of our more unique membership features—inclusion of our community partners in care (home health agencies, medical groups, FQHC, long-term care, plus mental health and substance abuse agencies). We will go into the rationale and critical importance from our founding CEOs in thinking about the collaborative both from a big circle (NE Hospitals) way of sharing services and saving costs but also from the little circle and healthcare service area perspective (community partners). We will elaborate more on the big circle versus little circle structure, focus and early-on lessons learned. Once established, our early focus was building scale via network development and the challenges we encountered with like organizations, how a vision was not enough and the importance of building "value-add" programs for which potential members could realize a return on investment. We will share our knowledge, challenges and recommendations about what services and programs worked and which ones didn't make the initial cut. Our discussion points will include our membership dues strategy, legal structure considerations, our initial member planning meeting, our network workgroups—and we will outline what might work in regions looking to replicate this model.