Johns Hopkins Medicine, Kaiser Permanente partner to expand ways to deliver quality care

Kaiser Permanente and Johns Hopkins Medicine today announced plans to strengthen the successful collaboration between the two health care organizations. With the new agreement, Kaiser Permanente and Johns Hopkins Medicine will expand ways to deliver quality care by sharing evidence-based best practices, advancing population health programs, collaborating on education and research endeavors, and exploring how the organizations can work together to create better health care models for consumers and their communities.

"Kaiser Permanente is committed to providing high-quality health care and service, while also leading the nation in making health care more affordable for Americans," says Kaiser Permanente Chairman and CEO Bernard J. Tyson. "This enhanced collaboration with Johns Hopkins will help us deliver on that commitment and continue to meet the evolving health needs and expectations of our members, patients and customers."

"Health care today requires partnership among forward-thinking health care organizations," says Paul B. Rothman, M.D., dean of the medical faculty and CEO of Johns Hopkins Medicine. "Through a strategic collaboration with Kaiser Permanente, we will be able to cultivate the human and intellectual capital found in both organizations to significantly improve the safety and quality of care while enhancing the patient experience."

"Combining the expertise of the nation's leading integrated care delivery organization with the expertise of the country's leading academic medical center will allow us both to provide even better quality and service to their patients," says Robert Pearl, M.D., executive director and CEO of the Mid-Atlantic Permanente Medical Group. "As the United States works to improve its health care system, this partnership will provide powerful and important insights into how care can be provided to patients in new and innovative ways."

The agreement between the two health care organizations will initially focus on:

• Sharing best practices and leveraging electronic medical records to accommodate the growing need among providers and patients to access clinical information quickly and efficiently.
• Strengthening the relationship between Kaiser Permanente and Suburban Hospital, a member of Johns Hopkins Medicine, by combining their collective expertise to create an advanced model of care.
• Bringing care into the home to meet the evolving needs of patients by exploring and leveraging technology to deliver personalized medicine.
• Building on the existing collaboration between Kaiser Permanente and Johns Hopkins' Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality to advance the patient experience and improve treatment outcomes while reducing costs.
• Pursuing opportunities to develop educational programs and research-based best practices that benefit the overall health of the people in the communities we serve.

"This new agreement builds on the relationship Kaiser Permanente of the Mid-Atlantic States and Johns Hopkins Medicine have had for more than 15 years," says Ronald R. Peterson, president of The Johns Hopkins Hospital and Health System and executive vice president of Johns Hopkins Medicine. "Care providers from both organizations successfully have been working together to deliver high-quality care. This is demonstrated through the Kaiser collaboration with Suburban Hospital in Maryland, where physicians from both care teams work side by side to ensure the best patient outcomes."

"Working more closely with Johns Hopkins Medicine will help us deliver an innovative care experience for our members that will translate into quality care that's also affordable," says Kim Horn, president of Kaiser Permanente of the Mid-Atlantic States. "This strategic collaboration will facilitate additional population health research and innovative practices benefiting both individual patients and the larger community."

"The collaboration between Johns Hopkins Medicine and Kaiser Permanente will escalate medical solutions from the bench to the bedside," says Brian Gragnolati, senior vice president of the Johns Hopkins Health System. "Together we can find solutions that provide patients with value-based care."