In a traditional fee-for-service model, one wouldn’t necessarily expect an academic medical center such as The Johns Hopkins Hospital to closely collaborate on patient care with competitors like Mercy Medical Center or Sinai Hospital. Yet that’s exactly what’s happening through the Community Health Partnership of Baltimore.

This regional partnership, like similar ones in Howard County and Montgomery County that Johns Hopkins Medicine is participating in, focuses on engaging people at high risk for hospital use, particularly those who are chronically ill and do not have a medical home where they receive high-quality health care. In other words: They are falling through the cracks. What works in Howard County may differ from what works in Baltimore City, but we’re learning from each other and bringing our best innovations and practices to the table to help individuals receive coordinated care through health navigators, in-home services and links to community resources.

These partnerships highlight the importance of managing innovation so that it proceeds efficiently. Take our cover story on telemedicine. The technology had been springing up in several areas around Johns Hopkins Medicine on an ad hoc basis, with interested physicians trying to figure it out independently. Now, a newly established Office of Telemedicine helps physicians turn their ideas of how to use telemedicine into reality in an organized fashion: Pilot projects are organized and start small. Once a good model is reached, functionality is built into our electronic medical record system so more health care professionals can participate.

Of course, innovation requires leaders who can see the big picture. For us, that involves serious integration efforts. In “Meet Your Partners,” you’ll read about Peter Hill, who has taken on the dual role of managing medical affairs for The Johns Hopkins Hospital and for the Johns Hopkins Health System. This means he is not only working in East Baltimore to lead the medical staff and provide direction for patient safety programs and pharmacy services, but he’s also working with clinical directors systemwide to improve quality and efficiency. Likewise, Redonda Miller, president of The Johns Hospital, and Rick Bennett, president of Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, are continuing a longstanding tradition of consolidating expertise in specialty areas on one or the other campus to function together as one larger unit.

By keeping open to innovation and working together, we are able to deliver better value to Johns Hopkins patients and payers.