Where we started
Primary care physicians have always faced a challenge: providing superior care for both office patients and patients hospitalized with complex illnesses. In 1997, five physicians answered the challenge with the first dedicated hospitalist private practice in Northeast Ohio. Serving physicians referring to Akron City and St. Thomas Hospitals, Summa Inpatient Medical Services (SIMS) became Inpatient Medical Services in 2000 to reflect our expanding regional networks of primary care physicians and hospitals.
We continue to grow, still guided by the founding principles defining our mission.
- Collaboration: cultivate working partnerships with every patient, hospital, and primary care physician
- Mutual benefit: pursue goals that serve the needs of patients, hospitals, primary care physicians and IMS inpatient internists
- Excellence: provide exceptional medical services, setting and meeting high standards for compassionate care, patient outcomes, and financial success
Where we are
Our dedication to working with primary care physicians and hospitals keeps us in touch with the pulse of hospital medicine.
Our flexibility and commitment to collaboration produce outstanding medical outcomes and services tailored to the goals of each hospital.
Our unique practice model establishes a patient-focused process that also benefits primary care physicians, hospitals, and IMS hospitalists.
We deliver distinctive advantages:
- Continuous presence of inpatient internists, each personally following patients from admission through discharge to followup while participating fully in the life of the hospital
- Full coverage including true 24-hour management, proactive crisis management and emergency coverage by specialists
- Clinical advancement since our inpatient internists, expert at managing multiple system diagnoses, add to the knowledge base, improve patient protocols, and optimize coding and analytics
- Service improvement through working partnerships for programs that achieve specific goals, from reducing complications and length of stay, to streamlining procedures, record-keeping and billing
Where we excel
By staying true to our mission and continuously refining our processes, we achieve results that matter to everyone:
- Patients: continuity of care by one physician, fewer complications, a humane experience
- Clinicians: specialist knowledge and partnership in developing better inpatient protocols
- Primary care physicians: trustworthy inpatient care and collegial communication
- Hospitals: advances in core performance—increased primary physician referrals, medical management that improves quality of care, patient safety, LOS, resource utilization, cost control
- Inpatient internists: opportunities to innovate in a critical specialty while balancing professional and private life
