Physicians Practice and Tucson Medical Center Partner to Improve Patient Care in Southern Arizona

Baltimore, Maryland — January 21, 2009 — Physicians Practice and Tucson Medical Center 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 the southern Arizona area better handle the cumbersome and time-consuming issues of managing a busy practice. Through this new alliance, Tucson Medical Center 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 percent 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 percent of medical students do not feel adequately prepared for managing or owning a practice in the future.

Under their new partnership, Tucson Medical Center will sponsor the distribution of “Physicians Practice®”, America’s Leading Practice Management Journal, to approximately 3,400 local doctors from multiple specialties in southern Arizona. Physicians Practice will be mailed monthly, beginning this month, 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 Tucson Medical Center highlighting the hospital’s latest clinical offerings as well as articles of interest to physicians in the region.

“Opening this new channel of communication helps maintain our relationships with physicians throughout the region,” said Judy Rich, executive vice president and hospital administrator at TMC. “Since our physicians are vital to TMC’s success, we are pleased to help them succeed in their practices by sending them this important journal.”

"It is great to be able to partner with Tucson Medical Center to bring practice management information and resources directly to southern Arizona physicians,” says Marcy Holeton, senior vice president and general manager of CMPMedica US. “Our expertise in practice management and technology will help southern Arizona 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 CMPMedica, a division of United Business Media. Visit www.PhysiciansPractice.com for additional information about our acclaimed healthcare business education solutions.

About Tucson Medical Center

Tucson Medical Center has been Tucson’s locally governed community hospital for 65 years. Licensed at 650 beds, TMC is a regional leader for emergency, maternity, pediatric, cardiac, neuroscience, orthopedic, and many other services, while collaborating to educate more students and employees in health care careers. Learn more at www.tmcaz.com.

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

Media contact for Physicians Practice:
Monique Griffin
Senior Marketing Manager
410-818-2715
monique.griffin@cmpmedica.com

Media contact for Tucson Medical Center:
Julia Strange
Director, Public Policy & Marketing
520-325-2017
julia.strange@tmcaz.com