OU Health to SSM

[cindycat]

My husband got a call today about OU Mid-Del Family Medicine changing to SSM Health. They cancelled our next appointment. Anybody here know what's going on? Thanks.

[king183]

OU Mid-Del Family Medicine is not synonymous with OU Health. OU Mid-Del Family Medicine is a physician clinic that was owned by OU Physicians and has apparently been purchased by SSM. I’m not sure why the physician clinic was sold, but this is relatively common and a somewhat controversial trend in health care. Hospitals have been buying up once independent physician clinics, forcing patients into new health systems and cutting down on competition in an already competition-light industry. Some argue it’s also raising costs as hospitals pressure their newly-owned physicians to refer into their systems for unnecessary services, including costly lab tests, scans, and inpatient admissions. Others argue that the purchase of these clinics create a useful integration between the hospital and the physician, allowing better coordination of care as these physicians adopt the hospitals’ electronic health records systems and can better track their patients throughout the system.

OU Health is an entity that will ultimately comprise the OU hospital and OU Physicians when their merger is complete this summer. I’m not trying to be pedantic, but the title of the thread caught me by surprise, as I thought maybe I missed some major news about the health systems in OKC. If SSM were to purchase OU Health that would mean massive changes for the entire state’s health systems.

That was a long, winding way of saying I’m sure the sale is related to the mergers at OU and the ongoing competition to buy up physician practices.

[king183]

I should have also noted that they should not have cancelled your next appointment without properly assisting you in setting up a replacement appointment with a new provider. I hope they did that for you or your husband. If they didn’t do that, I’d be quite upset. It’s a huge pet peeve of mine how these massive health systems regularly throw out patients and wish them luck without properly doing their job to coordinate their care. For people without knowledge of the system or without resources, it’s a massive burden and results in a lot of unnecessarily delayed care and increased costs.

Frankly, hospital systems are abysmal at this and I’m constantly angered at how they get away with it despite how easy it should be.

[Edmond Hausfrau]

OU Mid-Del Family Medicine is not synonymous with OU Health. OU Mid-Del Family Medicine is a physician clinic that was owned by OU Physicians and has apparently been purchased by SSM. I’m not sure why the physician clinic was sold, but this is relatively common and a somewhat controversial trend in health care. Hospitals have been buying up once independent physician clinics, forcing patients into new health systems and cutting down on competition in an already competition-light industry. Some argue it’s also raising costs as hospitals pressure their newly-owned physicians to refer into their systems for unnecessary services, including costly lab tests, scans, and inpatient admissions. Others argue that the purchase of these clinics create a useful integration between the hospital and the physician, allowing better coordination of care as these physicians adopt the hospitals’ electronic health records systems and can better track their patients throughout the system.

OU Health is an entity that will ultimately comprise the OU hospital and OU Physicians when their merger is complete this summer. I’m not trying to be pedantic, but the title of the thread caught me by surprise, as I thought maybe I missed some major news about the health systems in OKC. If SSM were to purchase OU Health that would mean massive changes for the entire state’s health systems.

That was a long, winding way of saying I’m sure the sale is related to the mergers at OU and the ongoing competition to buy up physician practices.

Before Saints became SSM, there were talks to merge with OU Medicine, circa 2017. The deal fell apart and OU was out of their HCA contract by then, and I think that's when the seeds for OU Health started.

[cindycat]

I should have also noted that they should not have cancelled your next appointment without properly assisting you in setting up a replacement appointment with a new provider. I hope they did that for you or your husband. If they didn’t do that, I’d be quite upset. It’s a huge pet peeve of mine how these massive health systems regularly throw out patients and wish them luck without properly doing their job to coordinate their care. For people without knowledge of the system or without resources, it’s a massive burden and results in a lot of unnecessarily delayed care and increased costs.

Frankly, hospital systems are abysmal at this and I’m constantly angered at how they get away with it despite how easy it should be.

I've wondered what more I could have learned if I'd been home to answer the call. Rescheduling will be my priority. We both take controlled medicines and will need renewals this month. I'll keep trying to find more info. We're on both OU's and SSM's patient portals, so maybe I'll find something there..or not.

[kzizok]

Before Saints became SSM, there were talks to merge with OU Medicine, circa 2017. The deal fell apart and OU was out of their HCA contract by then, and I think that's when the seeds for OU Health started.

Just FYI, St's has always been Sisters of St Francis (SSM). The OU merge was a lot closer to happening than most think.