4 Health Care Groups Form Statewide Network : Medicine: The joint venture is the result of reform prospects and pressure to cut costs.

Four regional health care organizations said Tuesday that they have formed a statewide network they hope will appeal to large companies by giving their employees access to medical facilities throughout California.

Officials of the four organizations said their effort is a response to the prospect of national health reform and the pressure of employers that are demanding cuts in medical costs.

The joint venture, dubbed the California Health Network, is composed of Adventist Health System/West and Loma Linda University Medical Center in Southern California, Sharp HealthCare of San Diego, Sutter Health of Sacramento and California Healthcare System of San Francisco.

The organizations collectively represent 1.2 million patients, 14,500 doctors and $4 billion in assets, officials said. The group plans to expand to other parts of the state.

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The companies noted that they are not merging their organizations. But patients who belonged to one of the four health care groups would be able to use medical facilities of the other groups.

“Many of California’s largest private employers want to limit the number of health plans with which they must contract,” said Peter K. Ellsworth, Sharp HealthCare’s chief executive.

“Likewise, large health plans have begun to merge and are looking for strategic relationships with provider networks and fully integrated health care systems to contract with on a statewide basis.”

To attract employers with offices throughout the state, the network will have to forge links with hospital, medical groups and perhaps health plans in Los Angeles and Orange counties and the Central Valley.

Ellsworth said the group is in discussions with other hospitals in Los Angeles and Orange counties, but he declined to say which ones.

Officials said the formation of the venture will help the four organizations compete better with Kaiser Permanente, the nation’s largest HMO, with more than 4 million members in California alone.

Officials said the venture is a response to growing pressures from private and public employers to reduce health care costs. In particular, they cited the success of the California Public Employees Retirement System, which purchases health coverage on behalf of nearly 1 million public workers, at reducing its members’ insurance premium rates.

“Cost seems to be driving almost everything in health care, and we must respond to that,” said Quentin L. Cook, chief executive of California Healthcare System, a Bay Area network of two hospitals, 3,600 doctors, nursing homes and clinics.

In Northern California, the Bay Area Business Group on Health, a recently formed health-purchasing consortium of major employers, including Bank of America, Wells Fargo Bank and Chevron Corp., is likely to have a big impact on driving down medical costs, Cook said.

The joint venture will also seek to improve the quality of health care because the network will allow the hospitals to combine resources and expertise, the officials said.

The group would be able to standardize patient claim forms and create computer systems to provide better information about patient care and clinical practices, officials said.

In Southern California, Adventist Health operates Glendale Adventist Medical Center, White Memorial Medical Center and Simi Valley Hospital & Health Care Services.

As part of the joint venture, it has teamed up with Loma Linda University Medical Center to form an organization known as Pacific Integrated Healthcare.