Greater Newburyport

Vision

The Greater Newburyport community’s vision is to create a fully integrated electronic network in which health information is confidentially exchanged between the physicians, hospital, local health care providers, and patients. The vision includes a medical community where every healthcare provider has:

a fully functioning electronic health record (EHR)
high-speed access to the Internet
medical information exchange
remote access to information

Such a network, with EHR embedded decision support (to support better decision making at the point of care) and patients with fully functional personal health records, has the potential to dramatically improve safety, quality, and efficiency of care for patients.

Care Delivery Structure

The Lower Merrimac Valley Physician Hospital Organization (LMVPHO) is a well-established entity that consists of Anna Jaques Hospital and the members the Whittier Independent Practice Association. LMVPHO provides for the combined resources of both organizations to more effectively deliver high quality, cost effective care across the entire inpatient and outpatient continuum.

Anna Jaques Hospital is a 123-bed community hospital and is the area’s only acute care facility. It offers medical, surgical, obstetrical, adult and pediatric psychiatric and sub-acute services. It is a Level III Trauma Center and its’ Wound Healing Center was recently voted #1 in the nation. www.ajh.org

Whittier IPA, Inc. an association of independent practices

All of the physicians participating in the Pilot program have primary affiliations with Anna Jaques Hospital and are members of the Whittier IPA. About one-third of the physicians are primary care physicians and the remaining two-thirds are specialists. Approximately 80% of patients receiving primary care from practices within Greater Newburyport are referred to specialists within the community when specialty care is necessary.

Community Profile

The Greater Newburyport communities of Newburyport, Newbury, Salisbury, Amesbury, West Newbury, Merrimac, and Georgetown are situated about 35 miles north of Boston and are socio-economically diverse cities. Most residents receive a majority of their health care locally. The community has grown rapidly over the last several years and the provider network covers close to 100,000 patients.