\u201cQuite frankly, from a point of differentiation, this will allow us to bring more academic programs to bear, more residencies, more fellowships,\u201d Bryant says. \u201cIt’ll expand our research platform. It’ll give people access to services they’ve never had before. The most exciting thing this will bring to patients is access to services that they may not have had before.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bryant also said that the expansion of offerings will take place gradually.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s not automatic,\u201d he says. \u201cAcademic health centers are not light switch strategies; they just don’t happen. They grow over time.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut now we have all of the partnership models in place to allow us to bring those new programs to our community. This includes research, this includes more specialized care, bringing in services that people have had to travel away to get. But also it gives us an opportunity to really build on some academic programming that will improve the quality of care as well,\u201d Bryant says.<\/p>\n
Richard McCullough, president of Florida State University, said in a video message that the partnership with Tallahassee Memorial to develop FSU Health is about \u201ccreating an even better healthcare environment than we have now.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have very good healthcare in this region, but to take it to the next level is really our goal in this partnership,\u201d McCullough said.<\/p>\n
He touted the prospects of offering more comprehensive health options in Tallahassee.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople won’t have to travel as much to go get care outside the city, and we hope to, you know, 10, 20 years from now, create that environment where you know you can get almost anything done here in Tallahassee,\u201d McCullough said.<\/p>\n
A regional presence<\/p>\n
Officials say they are aiming to go beyond Tallahassee and are looking to extend services across northern Florida and the panhandle.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing an academic center is a differentiator,\u201d O\u2019Bryant said. \u201cIt allows you to provide services and to draw in populations from a broader area. If we want to become a true academic center, we have to have a more of a large regional presence. So you can start thinking about not just going out 50, 60, 70, miles, which we do now, but now we’ll draw the line out hundreds of miles as we become more specialized.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Bryant said he\u2019s enthusiastic about tapping more into the fast-growing Panama City Beach area, saying it\u2019s going to be a key part of the strategy moving forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’ve been expanding out for quite some time into smaller communities,\u201d he said. \u201cBut Panama City is a growth market; it’s growing much faster than Tallahassee, one of the fastest growing markets in our community or in our state.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to offering more services for patients in Tallahassee, officials with the institutions say they expand to attract more patients from outside the region.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want Tallahassee to be a center of care where people feel not only comfortable here coming to our services, but people from well beyond our boundaries look at Tallahassee as a place for outstanding, cutting-edge, clinically excellent care,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
With the long-term agreement, the institutions have agreed to a new governance structure. While Tallahassee Memorial will oversee operations, Florida State will be able to nominate candidates for boards in Tallahassee and Panama City Beach. The agreement does preserve Tallahassee\u2019s existing charity care policies.<\/p>\n
FSU Health says there are no changes to insurance plans that are accepted, and the new system says it\u2019s not looking to burden patients with additional costs. Officials say patients will continue to receive care from the doctors and other health professionals that they know.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cQuite frankly, from a point of differentiation, this will allow us to bring more academic programs to bear,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":416526,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[232,234,233],"class_list":["post-416525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416525\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}