Physicians Practice and Newton Memorial Hospital Partner to Improve Patient Care in Northwestern New Jersey

Baltimore, Maryland — September 10, 2008 — Physicians Practice and Newton Memorial Hospital have joined forces to help provide area physicians and their staff more time to devote to patient care. This new partnership is a unique program designed to help doctors in northwestern New Jersey better handle the cumbersome and time-consuming issues of managing a busy practice. Through this new alliance, Newton Memorial will use Physicians Practice’s extensive resources to deliver essential practice management tools to help local physicians manage the business aspects of medicine more efficiently and effectively.

Physicians’ need for practice management information is an ever-increasing one. According to Pricewaterhouse Coopers, every hour a physician spends with a patient results in 36 minutes of paperwork. Additionally, the cost of running a medical practice has increased and now consumes as much as 62% of the revenue (2007 Medical Group Management Association Cost Survey), while reimbursement continues to decline from year to year (2006 and 2007 Physicians Practice Fee Schedule Surveys). Furthermore, according to the 2008 Future Physicians of America Survey, nearly 70% of medical students do not feel adequately prepared for managing or owning a practice in the future.

Under their new partnership, Newton Memorial will sponsor the distribution of Physicians Practice®, America's Leading Practice Management Journal, to approximately 500 local doctors from multiple specialties in northwestern New Jersey, southeastern New York, and northeastern Pennsylvania. Physicians Practice will be mailed monthly, beginning in September, and will serve to help physicians and their office staff address the numerous challenges faced by today’s medical practices. The journal will also feature a section sponsored and written by Newton Memorial Hospital highlighting the hospital’s latest clinical offerings as well as articles of interest to physicians in the region.

“We have been searching for the right vehicle to better communicate Newton Memorial’s many offerings with our medical staff and other physicians who practice in the vast region we serve. Physicians Practice allows us to communicate with our physicians on a regular basis through our dedicated pages in the publication, while also offering our medical staff real tools to help deliver exceptional care and service to their patients,” commented Jim Furgeson, vice president of marketing/business development.

"It is great to be able to partner with Newton Memorial Hospital to bring practice management information and resources directly to northwestern New Jersey’s physicians,” says Kenneth Karpay, vice-president and group publisher of Physicians Practice. “Our expertise in practice management and technology will help Newton Memorial’s medical practices to spend less time on business and more time with patients.”

For more information on the benefits of partnering with Physicians Practice to improve patient care, visit www.PhysiciansPractice.com, and select For Hospitals.

About Physicians Practice
For more than 18 years, healthcare executives have turned to Physicians Practice to help them cultivate physician relationships. Physicians Practice journal maintains approximately 60 hospital partnerships and is distributed to more than 265,000 practicing physicians. We create award-winning content and multimedia services to help community-based doctors in the United States and Canada strengthen their practice operations, which ultimately improves patient care. Physicians Practice is owned by CMP Healthcare Media, a division of United Business Media. Visit www.PhysiciansPractice.com for additional information about our acclaimed healthcare business education solutions.

About Newton Memorial Hospital
The trusted regional resource especially for people in Sussex, Warren, and Pike counties, Newton Memorial Hospital is a compassionate, community-focused healthcare provider dedicated to quality and innovative service. In addition to an outstanding group of primary-care physicians, the hospital has a staff of specialists representing more then 40 medical specialties and subspecialties, including cardiology, endocrinology, gastroenterology, nephrology, oncology, orthopedics, pediatric neurology, and reconstructive maxillofacial surgery. The hospital is also able to serve the healthcare needs of the community beyond its walls through satellite wellness centers and innovative programs that promote quality, accessible healthcare for neighboring communities.

Hospital program contact:
Steve Gottshall
Associate Publisher
847-242-9552
steven.gottshall@cmpmedica.com

Media contact for Physicians Practice:
Amy Tubman
Senior Marketing Manager
410-818-2705
amy.tubman@cmpmedica.com

Media contact for Lancaster General Hospital:
Jim Furgeson
Vice President, Marketing/Business Development
973-579-8390
jfurgeson@nhhnj.org