Royal Philips & Marin General Hospital Announce Partnership

GREENBRAE, Calif. — Amsterdam-headquartered Royal Philips Healthcare and Marin General Hospital in Greenbrae, Calif., announced a 15-year partnership on Jan. 12.

The partnership is an example of the growing trend for health care systems to partner with health care technology companies such as Philips to be able to better manage the cost and complexity that comes with providing the most up-to-date technological equipment. United States health care is moving towards creating long-term patient value while still being able to manage the costs, and strategic partnerships are making it so that there can be a reduction in cost and an improvement of clinical and patient quality.

The $90 million partnership between the two will help transform and improve health care for thousands of patients in Marin County, north of San Francisco, according to a statement. The partnership is the first of its kind for the Marin General Hospital and is the third partnership for Philips in North America in the last six months.

With the strategic partnership based on an enterprise-managed services model, Royal Philips will provide Marin County with a range of advanced medical technologies to help improve patient outcomes. This includes updated imaging systems, patient monitoring systems, telehealth and clinical informatics solutions as well as consulting services and clinical education. With the help of the partnership, the companies hope to expand quality access to advanced medical care to improve the patient experience.

Marin General Hospital is an award-winning independent hospital, including a Healthgrades Distinguished Hospital award for the hospitals excellence in clinical care for the past two years. The hospital hopes to keep their high reviews, and to do so, it’s going to be able to provide the most advanced care possible to the surrounding community, according to a statement. In addition to providing the most advanced technology to patients, Marin General Hospital plans to break ground on a hospital replacement as well as open a new state-of-the-art breast health facility in 2016.

“We want to help keep residents of Marin healthy, and that means providing quality care close to home, including a new building, state-of-the-art health care technologies and services that will allow us to deliver on our goal of treating the whole patient — mind, body and spirit,” said Mark Zielazinski, Marin General Hospital’s chief information and technology integration officer, in a statement.

The hospital also plans to integrate holistic care and support services through the Center for Integrative Health and Wellness. The partnership with Philips Healthcare will also help the hospital focus on a long-term plan to keep up-to-date on the newest digital health technologies, said Zielazinski in a statement.

Independent community hospitals need to differentiate themselves from others and need to focus on patient experience, and with a partnership with a technology company, they are able to provide just that, said Royal Philips CEO Trans van Houten in a statement. The company has an understanding of how operations work at hospitals, and the partnership allows the hospital to grow and comply with new value-based models. With strategic partnerships, hospitals are able to deliver high-quality health care with up-to-date technology while focusing on delivering care to the people in the surrounding community.