UCLA rewrites the script for academic networks.

Abstract

Known worldwide for its high-tech tertiary and quaternary specialties, UCLA Medical Center developed a two-pronged strategy for maintaining referral volume in the face of intensifying managed care cost/referral control. Its 1. Recruited primary care clinician educators, and built a network of affiliated PC physicians and small PC offices in its historical service area. Now it draws 36% of outpatient visits, 40% of fee-for-service Medicare discharges, and 20% of total discharges from its network, providing "role models for academic-affiliated primary care medicine." 2. Began to bolster its draw further afield, developing long-distance consultation relationships/shared protocols with specialists in the rest of the L.A. Basin (home to another 45% of UCLA's business), and as far away as Las Vegas.