History of Dotwell
Health Services Partnership (HSP) began with a vision of creating programs and systems that would support the Dorchester House Multi Service Center and Codman Square Health Center's shared mission to serve the community. HSP has remained true to that vision. The success of the programs HSP has implemented are helping the Health Centers deliver high quality care and excellent customer service in a complex environment. The two Community Health Centers remain independent with unique corporate identities. Our mission is to develop and implement a managed care infrastructure, in a fiscally responsive manner, at Codman Square Health Center and Dorchester House Multi-Service Center that enhances their public health and community missions.
HSP continues to negotiate more favorable contracts with insurers on behalf of the health centers and coordinates costly medical information systems. The centers share medical leadership and can more easily avoid duplicating services. For instance, Codman Square offers mammography and orthopedics, while Dorchester House provides eye care and cardiology services. A shuttle service between the Health Centers is available for patients needing transportation for services.
The partnership’s progress has been swift. At first a women’s health workgroup was created to identify ways to improve outcomes for our prenatal, maternal and pediatric patients, and new programs are being developed for perimenopausal women. Efforts to increase immunization, mammography and pap smear rates, and to better track abnormal tests, were developed. Baseline mammography screening rates have been established, showing that the health centers’ rates compare favorably to high quality private group practices nationwide. New efforts focus on increasing the numbers of women in our community who receive mammograms to detect breast cancer at its earliest, most treatable stages.
In the first two years, HSP successfully negotiated an expanded specialty capitated contract for outpatient services with the Boston Medical Center HealthNet Plan (BMCHP). A care coordination program was also established to provide case management services to high-risk patients with complex medical or social problems. As part of this effort, we instituted an asthma and a diabetes disease management program . This allows us to provide systematic documentation and tracking of patient education, treatment plans, and outcomes for our higher-risk patients.