Regional relationships
Corewell Health is reimagining innovative products and services for an evolving health care marketplace. To do that, we are forging strategic relationships with partners who can help us continue to connect with consumers in new ways—when, where and how they need health care.
Corewell Health is collaborating with other hospitals and health systems, as well as with other health-related companies, on opportunities that can enhance consumer health experiences and improve the quality of health care for our patients, families and members.
Corewell Health and Holland Hospital have established the Forum for Hospital Collaboration to develop projects that improve the quality of health care while providing value to businesses in the communities served. Some highlights include a heart and vascular center on Holland Hospital’s campus. Plans are also under way to expand quality health care services and access in northwestern Ottawa County by building an integrated care campus called Health Pointe in Grand Haven.
This year Meijer, the Midwestern superstore giant, opened a full-service retail pharmacy on-site at Corewell Health Butterworth Hospital (part of Corewell Health Grand Rapids Hospitals). It is the first time a major retailer opened a pharmacy within a large hospital system in Michigan, building on a growing national trend to offer additional convenience to patients who need prescriptions filled before leaving the hospital. Corewell Health and Meijer are continuing to explore other opportunities for innovative collaborations.
Corewell Health is a founding member of Great Lakes Health Connect (formerly Michigan Health Connect), the state’s largest health information exchange, built through the collaborative investment of Michigan’s most prominent health systems and stakeholders. GLHC is dedicated to establishing an interconnected statewide network to make sure the right patient data gets to the right place at the right time to achieve better patient care, eliminate duplication and reduce costs. In 2015, GLHC surpassed 1 billion health information transactions annually, making it one of only a few health information exchanges in the country to achieve this kind of volume. GLHC membership includes 83 hospitals, physician organizations and physician hospital organizations, health plans, community mental health, local public health, federally qualified health centers, employer clinics, home health, long-term care and other stakeholders. In total, it has active connectivity with more than 2,100 offices representing more than 11,000 individual providers across the state.
The Northern Michigan Pediatric Coalition was formed in 2004 when several Northern Michigan hospitals partnered with Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital to streamline and formalize the transfer process of critically ill and injured children. These collaborative efforts have continued to enhance patient referral, availability of pediatric subspecialty care, provider education and pediatric health care advocacy. Today the coalition includes hospitals in 24 counties in the Lower and Upper peninsulas.
Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital established Partners in Children’s Health, a collaboration of 31 community hospitals in Michigan, in 2004. Partner hospitals receive support for quality initiatives and continuing medical education programs for doctors and nurses, and meet quarterly to share current health initiatives. The group advocates for children’s health and safety. It also creates access to pediatric specialty care through outreach clinics connected to HDVCH.
This network represents the commitment of its founding hospitals and health care systems to collaborate to reduce costs through group purchasing contracts. It is made up of five health care organizations and has created savings in purchasing power that have netted more than $28 million since its inception in 2003.