The health care system can be challenging, especially for patients who require more complex care. One way to help them—and to help all of their doctors stay up-to-date on what’s happening with each patient—is to establish strong physician networks to improve the lines of communication. Kindred, a transitional care hospital with a number of locations in south Florida, is at the forefront of creating these symbiotic relationships.

 

“At Kindred, we understand the importance of physician alignment to patient care,” explained Fernando Durand, director of sales and marketing for Kindred South Florida. “There are many benefits to doctors connecting with each other and creating alliances, including reducing readmissions back to the hospital and increasing efficiencies.”

 

To this end, Kindred has recently added Dr. Francisco Molina to its staff, in addition to the five-physician group, Intensive Care Experts, led by Dr. Gustavo Ferrer.

 

Dr. Molina, a board-certified specialist in internal medicine, works as the lead physician for FLACS (Florida Acute Care Specialists) of TeamHealth at Aventura Hospital, and has now brought his skills to Kindred, where he provides patient admission and discharge planning, conducts daily hospital rounds and provides direct care. “In the past, patients with very complex issues often got a lower level of care at skilled nursing facilities, which resulted in them being bounced back to the hospital, increasing readmissions,” said Dr. Molina. “Kindred is able to manage these complex cases because they have the specialties that are required to treat these patients—services that most skilled nursing facilities don’t.”

According to Dr. Molina, having a well-qualified staff and the wide range of subspecialties needed to treat complex patients results in the safe and timely discharge of patients. “The fact that these patients are also able to see the same physicians or same group of physicians results in continuity of care, which is very important,” he added.

 

Pulmonologist and critical care physician, Dr. Gustavo Ferrer, is the founder of Intensive Care Experts (ICE), which includes a hospitalist, cardiologists and an endocrinologist on staff. After five years at The Cleveland Clinic, he joined Kindred to provide staff training as the founder of the Critical Care PA Fellowship and to help improve patients’ quality of care within the hospital.

 

ICE’s physicians and its physician assistants provide 24/7 coverage at Kindred, and the group takes a proactive role in preventing issues from escalating. “We spend a lot of time at the hospital, trying to catch problems in their earliest stages so that we can prevent patients from having an emergency later on,” explained. Dr. Ferrer. “If a patient seems to be deteriorating, we intervene early so that he or she doesn’t end up as a cardiac arrest/Code Blue.”

 

Because of this early intervention, Dr. Ferrer says that Kindred’s mortality rates are excellent and that it has been able to lower the number of patients transferring out of the hospital. “By being proactive, the hospital was able to drop the number of transfers to acute care from 19 transfers last December to only four during January,” he said.

 

Dr. Ferrer says that patient satisfaction is also higher as a result of the team approach. “I believe that my team, coupled with the staff at Kindred and the primary providers, brings a higher quality of care to patients and their families,” he said. “We communicate constantly with the primary care team, consultants and the patients’ families, which results in improved satisfaction.”

 

Primary Care Physicians (PCP) are also pleased with this approach. “We provide a continuity of care for patients who come to Kindred; their PCPs can feel comfortable that their patients will receive 24-hour coverage by quality providers. Our goal is to help improve patient recovery, safety and survival; to provide a good quality of life.”