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Take Care Health Systems(SM) and SSM Health Care-St. Louis Team to Deliver Quality, Patient-First Service in St. Louis

Posted on: Thursday, 6 July 2006, 12:00 CDT

Take Care Health Systems(SM), a leading operator of retail based healthcare, today announced that it will collaborate with SSM Health Care-St. Louis, one of the largest full-service health care networks in the St. Louis area. SSM Health Care-St. Louis will coordinate the collaborating physician agreements for Take Care Nurse Practitioners who will staff nine Take Care Health Centers in the St. Louis area.

The partnership with SSMHC-St. Louis is representative of Take Care's focus on integrating and working in cooperation with the greater healthcare community towards a shared goal of providing accessible, patient-focused, quality healthcare in St. Louis. A select group of physicians affiliated with SSMHC-St. Louis will become part of Take Care's quality healthcare initiative, performing quality review on a portion of Take Care's patient health records, complementing Take Care's proprietary nurse practitioner peer review and other incident tracking and reporting programs.

The SSM Health Care-St.Louis physician network will serve as an excellent source of referrals for Take Care Nurse Practitioners when a patient's condition falls outside of the Take Care's scope of practice. Likewise, SSMHC-St. Louis physicians, where appropriate, can refer patients to Take Care during busy office hours, after-hours or for minor conditions. In addition to the strong relationship with SSMHC-St. Louis, Take Care will also work with other primary care physicians and specialists in the St. Louis region to foster a strong referral network for patients to get the care they need, when they need it.

"We are very pleased to collaborate with one of St. Louis' leading healthcare organizations, a system that has a strong reputation for quality patient care," said Peter Miller, President, CEO and co-founder of Take Care Health Systems. Miller continued, "This agreement with SSM illustrates the team-based approach among healthcare providers that we believe is key to delivering high quality, best-in-class healthcare. Our organizations both share the goal of doing everything with the patient's best interest in mind."

"This collaboration is a terrific opportunity to help improve healthcare access and convenience for our patients while reducing inappropriate and costly utilization of emergency rooms," said Ronald J. Levy, President/CEO of SSM Health Care-St. Louis. "We believe we can best serve our physicians, and most importantly, our patients, by being at the forefront of this concept and taking an active role in shaping it."

Take Care Health Systems operates Take Care Health Centers, professional family healthcare centers, located inside retail pharmacies. Take Care Health Centers will be opening inside nine Walgreens in the St. Louis region this summer. Take Care Nurse Practitioners (TCNPs) diagnose, treat, and write commonly used prescriptions for standard family illnesses in each care center, and adhere to state scope of practice regulations. Take Care utilizes evidence-based protocols and guidelines, developed from organizations such as the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Physicians and created specifically for Take Care's context and setting.

"Continuity of care and integration of patient care with the greater healthcare community is paramount not only to the success of this care delivery model, but more importantly to the ongoing wellness of our communities," said Dr. Regina Baime, Chief Medical Officer at Take Care Health Systems. "Take Care is expressly focused on serving as a beginning, not an end, for our patients. We will not only refer patients that fall outside of our scope to SSM physicians and others in the St. Louis region, but we will also advise that each patient should have a medical home, a primary care provider who is aware of and coordinates all of that individual's care."

About Take Care Health Systems

Take Care Health Systems of Conshohocken, PA is bringing high-quality, convenient and affordable healthcare to all Americans by working with national retail pharmacies, focusing on collaboration with traditional healthcare channels and leveraging best-in-class technology,. Take Care's vision is to combine best practices in medicine and the expertise and personal care of Take Care Nurse Practitioners with world-class customer service, filling a critical need in America by providing easy access to healthcare. The Company's nurse practitioners focus exclusively on diagnosis, treatment, screenings and vaccinations for common family illnesses. From providing an easy entry point to healthcare to a pathway to electronic medical records, Take Care believes its care model has the potential to revolutionize healthcare delivery - both by bringing more individuals into healthcare and ultimately lowering costs within the system. Take Care is a complement to the comprehensive care of a primary care physician, not a substitute for that care. The Company strongly supports the concept of a medical home, the idea that each individual should have a primary care provider who is aware of and coordinates all of that individual's care. Take Care operates through an integrated, team-based approach with the medical communities where they operate to maintain optimal referral networks and integration of patient care. The firm was co-founded by Hal Rosenbluth, past president and CEO of six billion dollar global travel company Rosenbluth International, and Peter Miller, former executive at Johnson & Johnson, most recently as president of a $3 billion pharmaceutical company and previously as worldwide president of a $400 million consumer healthcare company. For more information on Take Care Health Systems, please visit www.takecarehealth.com.

About SSM Health Care

With 8 hospitals, nearly 2,000 staff physicians and 11,000 employees, SSM Health Care-St. Louis is committed to serving the comprehensive health needs of St. Louis area residents. Sponsored by the Franciscan Sisters of Mary, the health care network includes: SSM Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center; SSM DePaul Health Center; SSM St. Joseph Health Center (St. Charles); SSM St. Joseph Health Center-Wentzville; SSM St. Joseph Hospital West (Lake Saint Louis); SSM St. Joseph Hospital of Kirkwood; SSM St. Mary's Health Center and SSM Rehab. The health care network also includes three medical groups: SSM St. Charles Clinic Medical Group, SSM Medical Group and SSM DePaul Medical Group. Its parent organization, SSM Health Care, also based in St. Louis, in 2002 became the first health care recipient of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. The system owns, operates and manages hospitals and nursing homes in four states: Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin and Oklahoma.

Source: Business Wire

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