Virtua Health and Rowan University reached another milestone in their academic affiliation. Effective Monday, the 130 Rowan Medicine clinicians officially became affiliates of Virtua Medical Group, providing greater access and continuity of care for the people of South Jersey.
“Virtua and Rowan offer distinct and complementary services to the community,” Rebecca Lynch, president of Virtua Medical Group and a senior vice president for Virtua Health, said. “By working more closely together, we will help ensure our respective and shared patients can easily access the services they need to be their healthiest selves.”
“The agreement builds on Rowan and Virtua’s unique shared clinical, academic and research mission by expanding access to quality medical care, focusing on patient outcomes and new opportunities for graduate and undergraduate medical education, while enhancing the operations of the Rowan Medicine practices,” Joshua Coren, senior associate dean of clinical affairs and professor, department of family medicine, at the Rowan-Virtua School of Osteopathic Medicine, said.
Coren is also a member of Rowan Medicine.
The practices will continue under an aligned name: Rowan Medicine, an Affiliate of Virtua Medical Group.
As part of the affiliation, Rowan Medicine medical practices have adopted Virtua’s electronic medical records system. In many cases, this will provide clinicians with expanded insight into a patient’s health history; it will also make it easier for Rowan and Virtua teams to collaborate on a patient’s plan of care. Similarly, patients will enjoy a streamlined, single portal for scheduling appointments and tracking their health journey.
“This is another major step in fulfilling the promise of the Rowan-Virtua partnership,” Anthony Lowman, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at Rowan University, said. “The combined expertise of an elite medical school faculty and South Jersey’s largest provider of health care will greatly expand and enhance access to clinical care throughout the region.”
Rowan Medicine has delivered multidisciplinary health care services in South Jersey for more than three decades. Its practices include 14 specialty areas, such as pulmonology, endocrinology and pain management. Rowan Medicine also oversees integrated centers that work with distinct populations, including the New Jersey Institute for Successful Aging and the NeuroMusculoskeletal Institute. Collectively, Rowan Medicine averages 210,000 patient encounters each year.
