Summit CityMD is Streamlining Care for its Patients

The often fragmented and confusing world of healthcare is being simplified.

By Jim Pytell, Managing Editor On Jan 12, 2021

It has been more than a year since physician-governed Summit Medical Group joined forces with one of the leading urgent care providers in the New York metro area, CityMD. Together, they formed Summit CityMD, which, according to its CEO Jeffrey Le Benger, MD, is now the largest independent multi-specialty group in the country.

The combined organization has more than 1,600 providers, approximately 8,000 employees, and nearly 200 locations in New Jersey and New York. Le Benger says that Summit CityMD aims to provide greater access to quality healthcare for patients at a lower cost, while ensuring a convenient experience across the entire healthcare landscape. 

He adds that being a physician-owned, managed and governed independent multi-specialty group has allowed Summit CityMD to recruit and retain a provider base that possesses the empathy and altruism needed to truly understand the basic needs of a patient that needs healthcare. 

“We are able to derive a healthcare delivery model that will benefit the patient,” Le Benger says. “We move the patient to an ambulatory setting, we lower the site-of-service cost, and we improve quality and outcomes by allowing our doctors to have a seamless transition of care for that patient.” 

Le Benger says that while consolidation in the healthcare marketplace is common today, you don’t always see integration coupled with that consolidation. 

“We are extremely involved in integrating and assimilating the practices into a model of ‘all for one,’” he says, adding that leveraging CityMD’s strength in urgent care and Summit Medical Group’s expertise in coordinated, value-based primary and specialty care is creating a uniquely accessible comprehensive care delivery model for patients in the New York/New Jersey area. 

“By merging the companies together, we were able to create this healthcare delivery model that will take care of the patients from birth through survivorship,” Le Benger says. 

Of course, much of Summit CityMD’s first year was spent navigating the COVID-19 pandemic, during which the organization played a critical role in its respective region. 

CityMD has become a large part of the COVID-19 testing infrastructure in New York City, offering walk-in diagnostic COVID-19 testing to New Yorkers, effectively tripling the number of available testing sites citywide. Summit Medical Group hospitalists and intensivists have also played crucial roles in caring for the sickest patients in New Jersey’s local hospitals. 

“We knew our combined organization possessed incredible strengths and capabilities, but the COVID-19 crisis showed the true colors of Summit CityMD’s teams and providers, as well as the values that underpin both organizations. What we’ve experienced ultimately advanced us down the path because of how we were able to come together in this crisis,” Le Benger says. 

He adds that the next chapter of Summit CityMD will bring deeper clinical integration, rebranding as a single company (while keeping the CityMD and Summit Medical Group operating brands), growth in providers, locations and new hubs, and an enhanced digital experience for its patients.

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