By creating a community-based network of doctors on the South Shore who share patient medical records and databases, Brockton Hospital's new Signature Healthcare hopes to keep local more patients who might otherwise go to Boston, particularly for specialists.
Whether it succeeds in drawing and keeping those patients remains to be seen. But the new network is the first one south of Boston to be based on other regional models, such as the Lahey Clinic on the North Shore and the far larger Partners HealthCare Systems Inc. of Boston.
Signature officials say patients will find everything they need in medical care under the Signature brand, from primary care physicians to acupuncture specialists. A primary care doctor in Randolph who might have referred patients to a specialist at a Boston hospital under the old system will now refer to a specialist in the network, for instance in Raynham.
"Everyone in our network is right here; it's something we never had before," said Norman B. Goodman, president of Signature Healthcare. "We can make all these moving parts work together."
Last week, the group finalized acquisition of Bridgewater Goddard Park Medical Associ ates, the largest multi-site, multi-specialty physician group in the region, expanding the Signature network to more than 550 healthcare providers around greater Brockton.
The network will include the Bridgewater group; Brockton Hospital; and the hospital's affiliates, including Primary Care Affiliates, the Women's Health Affiliates, the Brockton Hospital Specialty Physician's Group, and the Brockton Hospital School of Nursing. Offices will be in Brockton, Randolph, Raynham, Abington, Stoughton, and Bridgewater.
The integration of the system is seen as part of a recent wave in giving patients additional options within one healthcare system. It's also a way to build a healthcare community south of Boston, separate from hospitals in Boston.
"It's strengthening community-based medicine," said Ellen Lutch Bender, president and CEO of Bender Strategies, a Boston-based healthcare consulting company.
"It's a very strong, compelling capacity Brockton Hospital is developing for the community. It will make Brockton stronger, and it will let people who live in the community have greater access to good care and competent, thoughtful, skilled physicians."
Under the network, doctors will work off one system, making services more cost efficient, Goodman said. Standards of care will be the same within the network; all doctors will use the same prescription drug formula, for example, so that patients with the same illness aren't prescribed different drugs - saving the hospital money in buying the drugs, Goodman said.
Laboratories that have been run at the different group sites will be merged into one laboratory, saving $1 million immediately, Goodman said.
The most evident change will be shared electronic medical record keeping, which has become the latest tool allowing doctors to share information with specialists and a key element in building a network of providers, said Rich Copp, spokesman for the Massachusetts Hospital Association.
"It's an example of hospitals around the Commonwealth doing what they can to integrate their care," Copp said. "Being able to have one system . . . is really going to be a great convenience and help improve the quality of care in Brockton."
The integration of hospitals, affiliates, and private doctors and specialists has proven effective elsewhere. The Lahey Clinic has been called a pioneer in merging services under one umbrella organization, and Signature is trying to mirror that model.
Scott Hartman, director of communications and marketing for the Lahey Clinic, said that he could not comment specifically on the Signature model, but that the idea of a multi-specialty provider has been prescribed by the Group Health Association of America as the best way to provide care.
"Our physicians are not in competition for one another for patients," he said. "It's a totally collaborative team approach for care."
Referrals by physicians in the Signature network will be made to a specialist within the network, creating a team approach, Goodman said. Patients may still see any specialist covered by their insurance and are not forced to stay within the Signature system, though the hope is that they will.
"We have cardiologists at 110 Liberty St.," a Bridgewater Goddard Park site in Brockton; "we have cardiologists right here at the hospital," Goodman said. "And we have every patient's history right here on-site."
Dr. Mitchell Selinger, a primary care physician and gastroenterologist based at Bridgewater Goddard Park Medical Associates, said the merger will help independent doctors like him who will have the resources of a larger system for the first time.
The integration has already aided at least one family.
Ellen Paderson of Easton said the treks her family used to make to take her father to a specialist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston were stressful for him.
It was a blessing in disguise, she said, when his insurance company told them it would not cover the operation in Boston because there was a doctor in Brockton who could do it.
The surgery was performed at Brockton Hospital. Paderson's father, 85, was there overnight. She said she was impressed when a nurse made a phone call to check on her father's prescription, making things simple for her.
Eventually, Paderson and her family joined the Signature network.
"It was just the idea of being closer. It was easier on my parents," Paderson said. '
'It's important to have good care, right in your same town."
Milton Valencia can be reached at valencia@globe.com.
