LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Robert S. Dolan of Little Rock has been named the executive director for the Partnership for a Healthy Arkansas, a Shared Services Organization (SSO) that includes Baptist Health, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), Washington Regional Medical System in Fayetteville, St. Bernards Healthcare in Jonesboro and Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield.
Dolan has 32 years of combined experience in banking, investments, managed care, ancillary insurance, health care and hospital related businesses. He most recently served as vice president of partner management and coordination at Life and Specialty Ventures, LLC, in Little Rock. LSV partners with Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans across the country to offer group and individual ancillary products (dental, life, disability and worksite) through its subsidiaries USAble Life and Florida Combined Life.
Through his vast career, Dolan has acquired experience in start-ups, strategic alliances, relationship management, project planning, physician relations, business development, hospital leadership and operations, strategic planning, managed care contracting, consulting, marketing, public relations and product development.
“We are thrilled to attract an accomplished professional like Bob to lead our burgeoning partnership. His experience on both the provider and payer sides of healthcare are very pertinent to our goals as an organization. We look forward to a mutually satisfying relationship with Bob for years to come,” said Washington Regional Medical System President and Chief Executive Officer Bill Bradley, chairman of the Partnership for a Healthy Arkansas.
As part of the Partnership for a Healthy Arkansas, Dolan will help the five organizations — and others that may participate in the SSO in the future — to implement programs to improve health care quality and lower health care costs for patients across Arkansas. This new venture will not include a merger or acquisition of any of the systems.
The Partnership for a Healthy Arkansas has begun evaluating opportunities to achieve these goals in three areas — Operational Shared Services, Population Health Shared Services and Clinical Improvement Shared Services. Specific functions will be identified in which the organizations can reduce duplication, share the cost of expensive operations and improve overall performance. Examples of potential collaborative efforts include information technology, patient care management and coordination, expensive biomedical equipment maintenance and quality and financial data analysis.
In addition the new collaborative will help physicians affiliated with the four health systems and others from across Arkansas share best clinical practices. The collaborative will also facilitate cooperation between the health systems and Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield to ensure patients receive high quality, efficient care under new innovative value-based care and payment arrangements.
UAMS and Baptist Health are already working together to reduce duplication in two clinical areas: vascular surgery and inpatient rehabilitation. More areas of clinical cooperation are under consideration. In addition, UAMS collaborates with St. Bernard’s and Washington Regional through its regional programs, partnering on family medicine residency training, telemedicine and a variety of clinical programs including family medicine, geriatrics and high-risk pregnancy.
