By Misty Williams

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

For Charles Sevier, a doctor visit used to mean dealing with the hassle of hospital parking and following a blue line on the floor through a maze of hallways.

Special WellStar Health System’s new health parks will be modeled after a similar concept in Dayton, Ohio (above). In Cobb County, the system plans to offer a host of services in one facility.  

Even though it’s a regular visit, “you’re still going to a hospital, and that scares people,” Sevier said. “It does me.”

The 59-year-old Marietta resident is one of 200,000 people WellStar Health System hopes to reach in metro Atlanta with an ambitious plan to create a convenient “one-stop shop” in Cobb County. The system will offer a host of services in one, roughly 250,000-square-foot facility.

As health care costs continue to soar, medical providers such as WellStar are seeking ways to seamlessly deliver services to improve the quality of care while cutting costs.

One of metro Atlanta’s largest medical providers, WellStar is investing $80 million into its East Cobb Health Park project. Slated to open in 2013, the facility is not attached to a hospital and could include an outpatient surgery center, primary and specialty physicians, a women’s health center, urgent care services, a diagnostic center for imaging and lab tests, a wellness center and a café, hospital officials say.

A mother can get her a mammogram and a massage while her older daughter attends a yoga class and her two younger children are in day care, said Joe Brywczynski, WellStar’s health parks administrator. The health park will bring services to the community instead of people having to drive long distances to hospitals, he added.

Demand for outpatient care that’s not tied to a hospital has been climbing, said Brywczynski, who helped pioneer a similar concept in Dayton, Ohio.

WellStar’s Cobb facility, which will sit on 23 acres near Roswell and Providence roads, is part of a larger $804 million capital improvement plan. The health system is also planning a health park in Acworth, the first phase of which will be between 60,000 and 70,000 square feet, Brywczynski said, and a third facility is planned, possibly in the Vinings area.

While other local providers offer multiple outpatient services in one location, it’s often based around a hospital, said William Custer, a health care expert at Georgia State University. WellStar’s project is innovative because it's being built from scratch, he said.

Medical providers are increasingly seeking ways to create more integrated care, in part because improving communication among doctors -- whether by locating them closer together or connecting them virtually with technology -- fosters efficiency and lowers cost, Custer said.

The industry is moving toward a results-based system -- focused on a patient’s overall improvement -- where physicians would be paid for an overall episode of care instead of being reimbursed for each procedure, Custer said. “That’s a lofty goal," he said, that gives providers an incentive to integrate services and improve communication to avoid duplicating tests and other costly inefficiencies.

Dr. Todd Williamson, former president of the Medical Association of Georgia, said he hasn’t seen anything quite like WellStar’s project, though some hospitals have large outpatient facilities. But whether doctors are under one roof or connected by new technologies such as Skype, any method that increases patient access is good. “Clearly, Georgians right now are underserved by physicians,” he said.

With the health care industry in so much flux because of the federal overhaul, protecting the patient-physician relationship is crucial, Williamson said.

Integrated care predates the new health care law but will likely be accelerated by it, said Kevin Bloye, a spokesman for the Georgia Hospital Association. Companies such as Wal-Mart and Target are successful because “people really do like that one-stop shop effect," Bloye said.

As they compete for market share, many Georgia medical providers are working to give patients an array of services at their fingertips, he said. “We’re probably on the front-end of this trend.”

Northeast Georgia Health System has aggressively integrated its outpatient care, he said. Its 100,000-square-foot Medical Plaza 1 in Hall County includes urgent care, an imaging center and rehabilitation services, as well as physician offices representing 15-plus specialties.

Kaiser Permanente of Georgia has 26 metro offices -- ranging in size from 5,000 square feet to 100,000 square feet -- that provide multiple services, such as specialists and pharmacies, at one location. It will soon open two more offices.

For WellStar, which has five metro Atlanta hospitals, the push toward integrated outpatient care will hopefully create an edge in the market, Brywczynski said.

Investment in outpatient services is common among medical providers but has largely been piecemeal in the past, said Chris Kane, WellStar’s senior vice president of strategic business development. “If we execute this well, we will be noticeably differentiated in the metro Atlanta market.”

It’s a model that saves money for the health system and its patients, Kane said. The cost to build and run an outpatient center is less than a hospital, and more communication among doctors will save money by preventing duplicate procedures, Kane said.

Patients can immediately get follow-up tests after a doctor visit instead of driving to another location, he said.

Patient satisfaction is critical to WellStar’s strategy to set itself apart in metro Atlanta and keep people returning to the health parks, Brywczynski said. The health parks will focus on wellness and preventive care by offering classes and other services -- helping to keep patients healthy and avoid costly hospital and emergency room visits, he said.

Local medical providers are also adopting new technologies to achieve seamless care, Georgia State’s Custer said. Kaiser Permanente is piloting a technology that allows doctors to have virtual visits with patients.

At WellStar's health parks, the technology will include electronic medical records.

Communication can be poor between primary doctors and specialists, wasting money and patient time, said Dr. Mitzi Rubin, who will have an office at the Cobb health park. “Being able to have that information readily available, that’s huge.”