Board of Governors Approves Creation of Rutgers Health

Press Release

The Rutgers University Board of Governors has

authorized the creation of Rutgers Health, an innovative, statewide academic health care provider organization that will revolutionize patient care across New Jersey.

Rutgers Health will become one of the first academic health care provider organizations in the nation to integrate a full range of health-related specialties, including medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, nursing and clinical psychology, in addition to more traditional fields, such as neurology, surgery, cardiology, and oncology, said Rutgers University President Robert Barchi.

“Rutgers Health will bring together the critical missions of all university clinical activities under one umbrella,” Barchi said. “Combining the talents and expertise of our university's world-class educators, researchers and clinicians, Rutgers Health will become the largest academic health care provider organization in New Jersey and a leader in patient care to meet the challenges of the shifting health care landscape.”

Barchi added: “

Rutgers Health is the appropriate next step following the integration of Rutgers with most of the schools, centers, institutes, and clinical practices that made up the former University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. And we are particularly proud to announce this forward-looking initiative to benefit the people of New Jersey now, during our 250th anniversary year.”

Brian Strom, executive vice president for health affairs and chancellor of Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences, will oversee the multiyear development of Rutgers Health.

“First and foremost, Rutgers Health will be about patients,” Strom said. “Ultimately, all Rutgers Health locations will represent a place patients can go to receive all of their care, to get

well and to stay well. Physicians, nurses, dentists, pharmacists, social workers, clinical

psychologists, and researchers will work together, creating a leading academic health care provider organization distinguished by the quality and breadth of patient services.”

The

board vote authorized

the establishment of Rutgers Health as a new health care provider organization; Rutgers Health Group as a subsidiary nonprofit corporation that will function as an integrated, interprofessional faculty practice plan; and Rutgers Health Network, which will integrate Rutgers-affiliated health care providers across the state.

Strom outlined the 3-pronged Rutgers Health operational framework to be developed over the next few years:

• Rutgers Health will serve as the clinical arm of the university, becoming the single brand for all Rutgers patient care and patient services.
• Rutgers Health Group will be developed as a statewide faculty practice, comprising more than 1000 Rutgers-based physicians, dentists, psychologists, nurses, pharmacists, and other clinicians.
• Finally, Rutgers Health Network also will encompass the teaching hospitals, community centers, medical groups, wellness centers, and other affiliated entities and partners providing quality care through their relationship with Rutgers.

Strom explained that the development of Rutgers Health is being driven by the changes in the health care landscape, in which fee-for-service payment is being replaced with a value-driven model nationwide. The new health care provider organization will provide New Jersey with the latest methods and therapies both for treating patients and for keeping them well in a cost-effective manner that places even greater value on the quality of care.

Rutgers Health will be designed to benefit patients in a variety of ways. For example, patients will have access to multidisciplinary teams of care providers, which will minimize the number of patient admissions, reduce paperwork, eliminate unnecessary duplication of services, and prevent medical errors. Rutgers Health also will leverage the significant statewide presence it plans to achieve in negotiating with vendors to gain other cost efficiencies for patients.

Rutgers’ clinical practices currently accommodate more than 1.7 million annual patient visits.

“Rutgers Health will combine an unprecedented scope of education, research, and clinical care with a focus on accountable care and payment reform,” Strom said. “Patients will have access to leading physicians and treatments and a broad selection of specialties, right where they live.”

Rutgers Health

Rutgers Health includes the clinical components of these leading schools and units:

• Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy
• Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology
• New Jersey Medical School
• Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
• Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, New Jersey’s only NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center and a leader in patient care and cancer research
• Rutgers School of Dental Medicine
• School of Health Related Professions
• School of Nursing (Newark and New Brunswick)
• School of Nursing-Camden
• School of Social Work
• University Behavioral Health Care
• Health services for Rutgers students