Atrius Health, formed in 2004, is a not-for-profit, 501 tax-exempt organization, and is the largest independent physician-led healthcare organization in the Northeast. Atrius Health delivers a system of connected care for more than 740,000 adult and pediatric patients in eastern and central Massachusetts. Atrius Health's 36 medical practices, with more than 50 specialties and 900 physicians, work together with the home health and hospice services of its VNA Care subsidiary and in close collaboration with hospital partners, community specialists and skilled nursing facilities. The Atrius Health groups have a long history of operating as a model for accountable care organizations, with full responsibility for the quality and cost of care for many of their patients since before the term was coined by Elliott S. Fisher, MD, MPH, in 2006. In 2009, Atrius Health became one of the first organizations to sign on to the Blue Cross Blue Shield of MassachusettsAlternative Quality Contract, viewed by many as one of the first models of an accountable care organization. Atrius Health is also a participant in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' Pioneer ACO program. In 2015, Atrius Health's Pioneer ACO's quality scores were the highest among Pioneer ACO's in Massachusetts and the third highest among Pioneer ACOs nationally. The ACO model enables Atrius Health to employ effective population health management to pro-actively care for groups of patients with similar conditions over the long term and across the continuum of care. Almost all of the Atrius Health primary care practices have received the highest possible national accreditation as Level 3 Patient-Centered Medical Homes from the National Committee for Quality Assurance. Atrius Health has also earned Stage 7 recognition from HIMSS Analytics, the highest level possible nationally for the use of health information technology. This sophistication of technology includes a web portal that allows clinicians within Atrius Health and partnering organizations to have easy one-click, read-only access to a patient's electronic medical record at many hospitals in the area. Patients of Atrius Health can access a secure patient portal to allow access to medical records and communicate securely with doctors online.
Leadership
Steven Strongwater, MD, president and CEO
Steven Strongwater, MD became president and CEO of Atrius Health in August 2015. He is responsible for all aspects of leading this non-profit accountable care organization of 6,800 employees serving 740,000 patients across eastern Massachusetts with coordinated medical care, home health and hospice. From September 2012 to July 2015, Strongwater served as Geisinger Health System's chief transformation officer. Prior to this, Strongwater served as CEO of Stony Brook University Medical Center where he built advanced clinical programs and implemented major capital and information technology operations. Strongwater recently completed a term as the chair of the American Hospital Association's Committee on Health Professions as well as an Advisor to the Association of American Medical Colleges for the CMS Bundling Project.
Joe Kimura, MD, MPH is chief medical officer of Atrius Health and an internist at Atrius Health. In 2012, Kimura was named by Modern Healthcare as one of the Top 25 Clinical Informaticists in the United States. Since 2014, he has served as co-chair of the Office of National Coordinator HIT Policy Federal Workgroup on Advanced Health Models and Meaningful Use.
Atrius Health medical practices
Founding medical groups Dedham Medical Associates and Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates formed Atrius Health as a loose affiliation in 2004, and were joined by Granite Medical Group in 2005. They entered a formal merger in 2015, and took on VNA Care Network & Hospice as a subsidiary providing integrated home health and hospice subsidiary in 2017. PMG Physician Associates followed suit on June 1, 2017.
Hospital affiliations
Boston Children's Hospital
Brigham and Women's Hospital/Faulkner Hospital
Newton-Wellesley Hospital
Timeline
2004: Dedham Medical Associates, Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates, Southboro Medical Group and South Shore Medical Center formed HealthOne Care System
2005: Granite Medical Group joined HealthOne Care System
2007: HealthOne Care System changed its name to Atrius Health
2007: Hired Ed Noffsinger, the "Father of Shared Medical Appointments" to launch a program of Shared Medical Appointments as a way for patients to have better access to their physicians and other providers and to learn from other patients during a 90-minute group visit
2009: Began working with Simpler Consulting to improve care deliveries through Lean transformation.
2009: Signed a five-year Alternative Quality Contract with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts to improve the quality of care and cut medical costs
2009: Created the Atrius Health Foundation to support innovative solutions to improve healthcare and help in emergency situations like the 2010 earthquake near Port-au-Prince, Haiti
2011: Reliant Medical Group joined Atrius Health
2013: VNA Care Network & Hospice joined Atrius Health; VNA of Boston merged into VNA Care Network & Hospice
2015: Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates, Dedham Medical Associates, and Granite Medical Group merge into one corporation with VNA Care Network Foundation as an integrated subsidiary
2015: Atrius Health invests $10 million into an Innovation Center aimed at developing and improving patient-centered care delivery models to improve care quality and efficiency in interacting with patients
