Tufts Medical Center last month announced that it plans to expand its partnership with MetroWest Medical Center, following up on an ongoing pediatric care initiative with plans to now focus on serving adults in the Framingham area.
Tufts Medical will send specialists to MetroWest, based in the eastern Mass. town. Unlike other Boston−area medical centers that partner with other institutions, this "distributive model," according to Tufts Medical spokesperson Julie Jette, gives patients access to high−quality health care without making them trek to Boston.
"Many other centers in the area have built their own surgical centers and offices, whereas we make an effort to bring our specialists to work with the community hospital," Jette said.
Tufts Medical collaborated with MetroWest last year, sending pediatricians from the Floating Hospital for Children at Tufts Medical Center to MetroWest to provide services for children.
Stephanie Guidetti, director of marketing at MetroWest Medical Center, said that the latest partnership was based on the pediatric collaboration.
"MetroWest has had a wonderful affiliation for over a year with the Floating Hospital," Guidetti told the Daily. "The cultures and the goals of both organizations seem to mesh, so expanding seemed like a natural next step."
The partnership "made all the sense in the world," Jette said.
"It's a natural fit," she said. "Our pediatric affiliation has gone very well."
Ellen Zane, president and chief executive officer of Tufts Medical, echoed this statement in an Oct. 21 press release.
"Given our shared patient−centric philosophy of care, the expansion of our partnership with MetroWest Medical Center is a natural progression."
The Tufts Medical Center model of sending physicians to provide on−site assistance is based on the core belief that organizations should be clinically interconnected, according to Jette.
"Instead of everybody going into Boston for care, patients can get the right care at the right place at the right time," Guidetti said.
Tufts Medical physicians will carry out complex procedures that cannot be performed at a community hospital, Jette said. MetroWest Medical Center physicians will join the New England Quality Care Alliance, Tufts Medical's network of physicians, allowing MetroWest doctors to benefit from the expertise of their colleagues.
"We have two goals: for patients to have seamless care and for primary−care physicians to have unfettered access to specialists," Jette said. "Health care reform is heading in this direction."
In this way, the partnership will offer MetroWest patients improved services, according to Guidetti.
"Expanding the partnership will allow patients to receive seamless transition into Tufts Medical Center, if needed," she said. "That's a real win for patients."
Guidetti said that the physicians and staff of Tufts Medical and MetroWest share the same vision of a health care system in which medical centers offer more community assistance.
"We partner with community hospitals, which helps the viability of the hospitals," she said. "We are excited to build on the partnership."
MetroWest has expressed a particular interest in collaborating with the Weight and Wellness Center at Tufts Medical Center, according to Jette.
"We do surgeries, but also see patients with medically advised weight loss," Jette said. "We are figuring out what our affiliates need right now. It's a really significant affiliation, and it has been a great relationship so far."
