Oregon’s First Physician-to-Physician Community Referral System Launched by Portland IPA

January 9, 2012 -- The Portland Interhospital Physicians Association (Portland IPA), Oregon’s largest physician group comprising more than 2,500 primary care and specialty physicians, this week launched an easy-to-access system to assist with generating and tracking referrals, tracking patient utilization and facilitating an expedited process for obtaining prior authorizations and ordering diagnostic tests for physicians and health organizations.

The Web tool can be customized for each physician practice, health site or community clinic. The Portland IPA Provider Connect system, which the IPA purchased last month, does not mandate or pre-authorize referrals, but instead fits in with each clinic or health organization’s existing referral process to ensure tracking, decision support and follow-up occurs for each patient.

Each physician or administrator can customize it per their current referral patterns. At its launch, Portland IPA Provider Connect will integrate as many as 300 primary care and specialty physicians, hospitalists, nurse practitioners, and allied providers.

“This is not only a much more accountable and efficient way to manage patient referrals but it also transforms typically fragmented physician-to-physician communications and facilitates physician relationships to maximize timely and tracked care delivery,” said Susan Clack, M.D., the Portland IPA’s president and board chair and a primary care physician with Pacific Medical Group.

Dr. Clack added, “This easy-to-use, Web-based technology is a simple platform that works among public and private physicians, counties, hospitals and other health organizations regardless of the entity’s current health technology capabilities and regardless of what kind of electronic health record system an organization has or doesn’t have.”  

“This is an initiative that is definitely timely and needed among providers,” said David Labby, M.D., Director of Clinical Learning and Support for CareOregon, a health plan funded mostly via public programs such as Medicaid, Medicare and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

Dr. Labby added, “As health providers and insurers focus their efforts toward creating Coordinated Care Organizations, a connecting piece is how we process referrals, manage patient information and track outcomes.  This is an effort that allows that to happen seamlessly.”

After the 6-month pilot is complete, any physician, clinic, hospital or health organization may view the system and decide to purchase it on a subscription basis. Said Tom Gragnola, M.D., the Portland IPA’s Medical Director, “This is a kind of 'virtual physician’s lounge,' hearkening to the times when physicians met at the local hospital and were able to discuss patient cases face to face.”

The Portland IPA purchased the Web-based system from Proximare Health, and is similar to a community wide referral system developed by Proximare for organizations such as Chicago’s Cook County Health and Hospitals System. ###  About The Portland Interhospital Physicians Association.