October 11, 2007

Physicians vote to form consolidated medical group, work toward offering patients seamless care across all Palo Alto Medical Foundation locations

Mountain View, Calif. - The physicians of Camino Medical Group (CMG), Palo Alto Medical Clinic (PAMC) and Santa Cruz Medical Clinic (SCMC) have approved a plan to merge into a single physician group effective Jan. 1, 2008, the Palo Alto Medical Foundation (PAMF) announced today. All three medical groups are affiliated with the community-based, not-for-profit medical foundation, but are currently three separate legal entities that contract with PAMF to provide physician services. The reorganized group will work toward making it easier for patients to receive care at any PAMF location, a plan that will go into effect later next year.

Elizabeth Vilardo, M.D., Chair of CMG's Board of Directors, said the merger will facilitate the sharing of best practices from the three groups. "Bringing together the doctors from these three outstanding medical groups will enable us to become even better at what we do, and allow us to add new specialties and services that the three smaller physician groups were not able to add because of their size." She noted that as one physician organization, the group will become even more successful at recruiting and retaining the best physicians.

Under the current structure, the easy transfer of patients and their health information can be challenging, according to Terrigal Burn, M.D., Chair of the PAMC Executive Board. "Patients tell us again and again that they want the convenience and flexibility of being able to access care easily throughout the PAMF system," he said. This would mean, for example, that a patient who lives in Santa Cruz and works in Mountain View would be able to receive care in both locations - or at any other PAMF facility. PAMF operates facilities in Alameda, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties, and the consolidated organization will have approximately 850 physicians and more than 3,000 support staff members.

A committee comprised of PAMF and medical group representatives is already beginning to identify the steps necessary to offer seamless access to care across the network, said Christine Griger, M.D., Chair of the SCMC Executive Board. This will include the adoption of a single electronic health record that can retrieve a patient's health information from any PAMF facility. "While the transition will not happen overnight, we are absolutely committed to offering our patients easy access to care throughout the PAMF system," she said.

"This is absolutely the right thing to do, and the right time to do it," PAMF President and CEO David Druker, M.D., said. "We are convinced that the best way to continue to fulfill our responsibility to the community, and to deal with the challenges we face in health care, such as rising costs, capital demands and physician recruitment, is to form one merged medical group to work in a coordinated fashion with the medical foundation."

The Palo Alto Medical Foundation for Health Care, Research and Education is a not-for-profit health care organization that is a pioneer in both multispecialty group practice of medicine and outpatient medicine. PAMF is part of the Sutter Health family of not-for-profit physician organizations and hospitals that share resources and expertise to advance health care quality. Serving more than 100 communities in Northern California, Sutter Health is a regional leader in cardiac care as well as care of women and children, and is a pioneer in advanced patient safety technology.

For more information, contact: Jill Antonides, Director of Public Affairs 650-691-6240