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John Tedeschi, a pediatrician who founded Advocare L.L.C. and Continuum Health Alliance L.L.C., at company offices in Marlton. He misses treating children but now focuses on serving a wider group. AKIRA SUWA / Staff Photographer

Jane M. Von Bergen, Inquirer Staff

Writer

The nuts and bolts of delivering medical care

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Posted: Monday, January 6, 2014, 2:02 AM

For longtime pediatrician John Tedeschi,

the future of medicine relies less on the

whiz-bang advances of scientific researchers and more on

the nuts and bolts of delivering medical care.

"The academicians can't solve the operational problems,"

said Tedeschi, 75, who founded Advocare L.L.C., one of the

largest primary-care providers in the region, and Continuum

Health Alliance L.L.C., which manages doctors' practices.

The push to ensure patients get the care when they need it,

in the best, yet least-expensive setting, has been the heart

of government interventions to lower health-care costs.

Data drive the innovations, which is why Tedeschi's Marlton-

based businesses provide a perfect laboratory. Caring for

1.7 million patients, most of the 1,000 affiliated doctors and

nurse practitioners share a computerized medical-record

system.

More coverage

� Reducing health care costs for small businesses

Question: How do you see the Affordable Care Act?

Answer: I think it was a wake-up call that we could no longer

afford the medicine that we were delivering, but a lot of the

cost was from waste, improper procedures. We needed to

straighten out where we had gotten in medicine.

Q: When patients are released from the hospital, you

schedule them for a doctor's visit within 48 hours. Nurses

and health workers frequently call these patients to check on

them. Why?



A: You have one in four patients who are discharged from a

hospital readmitted in 30 days. That's horrible. They may not

be taking their medicine. They may not have understood the

instructions. They didn't get a checkup after they got out of

the hospital. But we make those arrangements. Our

recidivism rate as a company was about 22 percent. We

have reduced that in 11/2 years to 7 percent.

Q: You have health workers calling patients. What surprised

you the most?

A: The compliance of patients taking medicine is so bad. It

was shocking.

Q: You loved doctoring, yet you haven't seen a patient in five

years. How has that been?

A: It was the biggest adjustment of my life. I absolutely loved

my career. I loved being part of families. I'm a baby freak, so

I love hugging them and kissing them. It got a little trickier as

time went on, because parents said, "Oh my God." But I can't

help it.

Q: Why did you start these management businesses?

A: It made me unhappy that doctors were so unhappy being

doctors. [They] can't stand the business of medicine.

Q: What do you mean?

A: The collection process, malpractice - all the business

aspects of running an office. Doctors are extraordinarily

overwhelmed. They just want to be good doctors and they

want all this stuff removed from their lives.

Q: Can doctors have a work-life balance?



A: Forget the business and do what's right medically. You are

home when you've done the job. Young doctors . . . want a

home life, but the profession has certain demands and you

owe that to the people you are caring for.

Q: How do you balance it?

A: I don't want to call myself a workaholic because I'm not. I

don't have hobbies. I'm not a golfer. I don't have an

obsessive nature, but I like order. If you came back tonight,

there would not be one paper on my desk.

Q: Any plans to retire?

A: I doubt it. My mother drove to Philadelphia to work every

day at age 91.

DR. JOHN TEDESCHI

Title: Founder, chief executive Advocare L.L.C. and

Continuum Health Alliance L.L.C.

Home: Philadelphia.

Diplomas: Camden Catholic High School; Villanova

University, biology; Creighton University School of Medicine.

Family: Wife, Geraldine; children, John, 46, Elizabeth, 40.

Resumé: Longtime pediatrician, acted as medical director

of US Healthcare HMO of New Jersey, led medical staffs at

Garden State Community Hospital, Virtua Health, West

Jersey Hospital-Voorhees.

Unexpected: Thinks astrology helps in understanding

people.http://www.philly.com/philly/business/homepage/20140106_The_nuts_and_bolts_of_delivering_medical_care.html (4 of 11) [1/6/2014 2:18:46 PM]

His sign: Cancer.

COMPANIES HE OWNS

Advocare L.L.C.: Physician-owned medical group for 600

doctors and nurse practitioners.

Continuum Health Alliance L.L.C.: Practice

management and population health management services.

Main office: Marlton.

Locations: 409.

Employees: 4,000.

MORE ONLINE

Dr. John Tedeschi on how complaints built his business.

www.inquirer.com/jobbing

[email protected]

215-854-2769

@JaneVonBergen

Jane M. Von BergenInquirer Staff Writer

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Comments (1)

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0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 9:37 AM, 01/06/2014Finally a real, community experienced practitioner doctor doing something administratively; instead of the "smartest guys in the room" ,who never left a medical school,or AMA administrative office, with dozens of buffers against learning about the real world. Would that people like Dr.Tedeschi had been in charge of designing and advising on Obamacare. The result

would likely have been fewer dead and maimed. — penllynjohn

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