The University Health System is currently seeking to form a partnership with Novant Health, a nonprofit healthcare provider which operates community hospitals, clinics and facilities in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia.
If approved, UHS and Novant Health will create a joint operating company to preside over the Novant’s Northern Virginia healthcare facilities — including Novant Health Haymarket Medical Center, Novant Health Prince William Medical Center and Novant Health Cancer Center.
University’s Cancer Center Director, Dr. Thomas P. Loughran Jr. said the proposed partnership would have major implications for cancer care.
“The U.Va. Cancer Center offers state-of-the-art modern medicine, clinical trials, advanced therapies, in-depth physicians and multidimensional care where patients can have super-specialists in various aspects of cancer care, from radiation oncology to surgical oncology form a team to care for the patient,” Loughran said.
The partnership with Novant will allow patients covered by Novant community facilities in Northern Virginia to have more direct access to University Cancer Center expertise. Dr. Paul Read, an assistant professor of radiation oncology working in the Cancer Center, offered insight into the real effects the partnership could have.
“Currently, a physician could call [U.Va.] and get an appointment,” Read said. “Some health systems want their patients, if there is not a more global agreement, to stay in the health system so the care isn’t as fragmented. So if you have a global alliance, it makes it easier for the patient to navigate from one isolated island of the health system to another isolated island of the health system.”
Read also said that patient data transfer would be made easier with such alliances. He described how some health systems give CDs of x-rays to patients, while others transfer them over the internet. A University-Novant partnership would allow for an easier flow of data from the community facilities to University physicians. This alliance also has the potential to advance the capabilities of Novant facilities.
“There is a process called peer-review, where [a] local [Novant] facility may want to treat somebody who has a tumor in their lung, and they want to use a new technique we’re very experienced at,” Read said. “And they can review that with us and put a proposal together.”
Stereotactic radiosurgery, a procedure that focuses multiple low energy radiation sources on small areas, is an example of a technique that University doctors could teach to medical practitioners at local hospitals.
According to Loughran, the role of University-trained physicians in Novant facilities is still unclear. There are several possibilities — one of which is to have physicians from the University Culpeper Hospital travel to Northern Virginia to work after completing their residencies in UHS.
Loughran said the next step for the University Health System and Novant is to decide on the details of their partnership, in order to best combine the expertise of UHS with the community reach of Novant hospitals and form a larger health system that benefits the patients.
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