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Digital Media & Film 48 Doing Business in Connecticut | 2015 CT scan was warranted. e federal government has cut reim- bursement rates for Medicaid and Medicare patients, and for what it pays teaching hos- pitals to train medical residents. Nationally, says omas J. Balcezak, M.D., Yale-New Haven Hospital chief of staff, there are about 200 hospitals that provide graduate medical education — training the nation's doctors. e cuts to Medicare reimbursements sub- stantially slash residents' salaries. Yale New Haven Health (YNHH) set a goal of saving $125 million annually over the next four years by reducing expenses, said Marna P. Borgstrom, president and CEO of Yale New Haven Health System. For example, YNHH now requires surgeons to make a conscious choice about how much blood they give to a patient. An internal study found no difference in patient outcomes, whether patients were routinely given a couple of units of packed red blood cells or not, Borgstrom noted. By simply requiring a surgeon to request the blood as needed, YNHH saved $3 million. Similarly, aer a New England Journal of Medicine study in 2014 reported no difference in outcomes or the length of stay between patients who had traditional surgery versus robotic surgery, UConn Health Center created a surgeon-led effectiveness equipment com- mittee, Diamond said. Before the hospital buys new equipment, the committee must vet it for at least four peer-reviewed studies in medical journals validating the device's efficacy. While providers are seeking expense reductions, they're focused on improving the way they provide health care. ere's the old model of treatment where, for example, the patient has to go to one place to see an oncologist, another to see a radiologist and another to get blood drawn. Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale-New Haven Hospital provides the care in one place. "One of the things I feel really good about is the almost unrelenting focus on making patient care better," Borgstrom said. "It's expensive to have all the diagnostics in the same place. But when you're sick, you want to have a consistent caregiver staff and have the providers come to you instead of schlepping all over." e team approach to medical care has proven so effective from a treatment and patient satisfaction standpoint that the model is being replicated. At Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Hartford, the doctor will serve as the quarterback to a team of health professionals — such as APRNs, social work- ers, registered dieticians and exercise experts. "Patients are going to get better care, tailored to their risk and medical condition," said Adam Silverman, M.D., vice president of ambulatory strategy and development. "It's a lot cheaper to keep us healthy." Under a system called "population health management," hospitals are going to be paid a lump sum to care for a population for a year. If they keep the person healthy for less, they get to keep the difference, and if they spend more, the health care provider has to eat that cost. Yale, Saint Francis, Hartford HealthCare and UConn have satellite locations in the regions around their main facilities, provid- ing patient convenience that has the added benefit of making it more likely patients will seek preventative and follow-up care. Similarly, under a model called "primary care behavioral health" operated by HHC's Behavioral Health Network, the psychologist INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT › Health & BioPharma Physical therapist Michael Perin works with a patient at the JCC to mobilize the patient's ankle. PHOTO/SAINT FRANCIS HOSPITAL AND MEDICAL CENTER > Continued from page 47