California company to provide physicians to Beverly Hospital

By Sean Teehan, Town Correspondent

A California company entered into an agreement with Northeast Hospital Corporation to become the exclusive hospitalist care provider at two of its facilities.

Hospitalists are physicians who care for hospitalized patients. They serve as a liaison between specialists and the patients' primary care physician and also coordinate medications, discharge plans, and other patient needs.

Under the deal, which was announced Tuesday, Beverly Hospital and Addison Gilbert Hospital in Gloucester will exclusively employ hospitalists from IPC The Hospitalist Company, Inc., a North Hollywood company that provides hospital medicine and facility-based services.

"We decided that we really wanted to move our program to the next level," said Johanna Rodgers, vice president of physicians network and operations at Beverly Hospital.

The deal should not affect staffing in Beverly Hospital's hospitalist program, which has been in operation for about 10 years, Rodgers said. The hospital plans to replace current hospitalists only if they leave on their own, Rodgers added.

According to Rodgers, IPC got the contract largely based on their hiring and training practices.

"We want to make sure we maintain the very highest quality of physicians that come into our hospital," Rodgers said.