Health management company Apollo Medical Holdings Inc. is expanding in Northern California, securing two new contracts to provide hospitalist services to Mee Memorial Hospital in King City and Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital in Salinas. At Mee Memorial, the Glendale company will provide round-the-clock doctors in the hospital and will also staff an on-site clinic Monday through Friday. Less than an hour away, at Salinas Valley Memorial, ApolloMed will provide 12 full-time employees to cover six shifts as well as a daily care coordinator, who will operate as the liaison between hospitalists and patients’ primary doctors. Aside from providing staff, another component of these contracts includes improving care and increasing core measures and patient satisfaction scores, which are ApolloMed’s specialties. “We train our doctors to meet all these metrics and quality indicators.” said Dr. Warren Hosseinion, chief executive and co-founder of ApolloMed. “We use evidence-based medicine protocols to standardize care. A simple pneumonia can be treated five different ways by five different physicians. We try to standardize everything.” Standardized care is one of ApolloMed’s biggest challenges with these contracts. However, ApolloMed has proven successful in this area by training its doctors to meet these benchmarks, reviewing them and reporting the results back to the contracted hospital. Currently, the company has six affiliated physician groups, including ApolloMed Hospitalists, ApolloMed ACO (accountable care organization) and Maverick Medical Group, an independent physician association. The company has had a presence in San Francisco since 2014 through an affiliate but hopes to bring some of its other offerings further north as well. “Our strategy is we started in Southern California, and we’ve kind of pushed up to Central California and now into Northern California,” said Hosseinion. “We would love to bring our ACO and population health services to Northern California. Our goal is at some point to bring our other services around these hospitals.” Pacifica Pays Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer has procured $1 million in civil penalties in a settlement with Pacifica Hospital of the Valley. The Sun Valley hospital was accused of improperly discharging a homeless patient, allegedly violating city law and the hospital’s homeless discharge protocols, which were implemented after first allegations of patient dumping in May 2014. “Our office alleged the hospital failed to make certain of a ‘warm hand-off’ and failed to obtain written signed informed consent before transporting the victim,” wrote Deputy Director Frank Mateljan III in an email to the Business Journal. “As per the settlement agreement, the hospital does not admit any wrongdoing but has agreed to conditions.” After staying at the hospital for a month, Kasey Lucious, who had suffered bouts of mental illness and homelessness, was allegedly discharged by Pacifica without the hospital contacting relatives per their request. From there, she was allegedly taxied to a nursing facility without confirmation that the location would take the patient prior to transport or that the patient had arrived after the fact. As a result, Lucious never checked in and was found three days later by California Highway Patrol wandering the streets. For its first case of patient dumping in 2014, Pacifica paid $500,000 and incorporated homeless patient discharge protocols into its operating procedures. This time, the hospital agreed to pay $1 million as well as update these protocols. Mateljan said that these new practices are “currently being developed” and will be submitted “to the city attorney’s office for further review and comment in the near future.” Pacifica Hospital did not respond to a request for comment. Providence Goes Mobile Providence Health and Services Southern California has launched Providence Health eXpress, a new virtual doctor visit app. The nonprofit health care system — which operates Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills, Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank and Providence Tarzana Medical Center — now allows patients to schedule virtual visits with nurse practitioners between the hours of 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. for $39, with or without insurance. The program is not covered by Medicare, MediCal or Tricare. Via smartphone, tablet or computer, Health eXpress provides on-demand, secure video consultations for minor medical issues, such as ear infections, rashes and colds. During the appointment, the practitioner can review medical history, answer questions, diagnose and treat ailments as well as prescribe medications. “We’re bringing patients, providers and insurers together in new ways, making access to health care easier than ever before,” Dr. Michael Bernstein, chief medical officer of Providence Southern California, said in a statement. Staff Reporter Stephanie Henkel can be reached at (818) 316-3130 or [email protected].
