BURBANK : Hospital Prepares for Health-Care Changes

Doctors at Thompson Memorial Medical Center, anticipating major changes in the nation’s health-care system, are banding together to try to cut costs, a hospital official said Tuesday.

Also, during a symposium this weekend, doctors will get a preview of the report of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s Health Care Task Force from a San Francisco lawyer who is a member of the task force.

The lawyer, Peter S. Grant, has been advising the Burbank hospital on ways to cut costs since January.

The Clinton Administration has called for radical changes to eliminate waste, cut costs and create an affordable health-care system. The task force report, expected to be released soon, has been nervously awaited by members of the health-care community.

Grant has been helping a group of Thompson Memorial doctors set up an integrated medical staff, something of a proactive step to prepare for the changes expected to be called for by the Clinton Administration, said Don Kennedy, director of physician services.

“Peter Grant has been working with us on a couple of other projects at the hospital, and since the task force report is due out at about the same time, we figure he could offer a lot of insight of what the report will do,” Kennedy said.

So far 27 local doctors, some not affiliated with Thompson Memorial, have signed up for the integrated medical staff concept, which is designed to save money. By having several different kinds of doctors working together, buying medicines and supplies jointly, and cutting paperwork, costs could go down, Kennedy said.

Health care will not be the same in the future, and the best way for physicians to survive may be to band together, Kennedy said.

“It’s going to be very difficult for a single practitioner to survive,” Kennedy said.

Grant will speak at the hospital’s Academic Symposium III, at the Pierpont Inn by the Sea in Ventura during the three-day Memorial Day weekend.