Wednesday, March 04, 2015
Samaritan Regional Health System may integrate into the much larger Cleveland-based University Hospital system by fall.
The health care organizations announced they are working on a letter of intent.
After MedCentral Health System's decision last year to affiliate with OhioHealth system in Columbus, and Avita Health System's decision to expand from Crawford County into the former Lazarus property, that means another piece of the puzzle has fallen into place in north central Ohio's hospitals' decisions to join forces to become larger institutions.
The announcement comes after a year-long search identifying Samaritan's best options to continue the organization's mission, hospital officials said.
A committee made up of Samaritan board and medical staff leaders, assisted by experienced health care consultants, recommended exploring the affiliation.
Samaritan President and CEO Danny L. Boggs said the hospital began looking at integrating with a larger system in fall 2013, asking a partnering committee to research what would be needed. "Then we starting having systems from Ohio come visit and just chat with us," he said.
Seven of the 10 hospital systems approached responded that they would be interested in affiliating. "Then (over the past six months) we started to whittle it down," Boggs said.
University Hospitals was chosen because on nine criteria Samaritan set as top priorities, "they scored high time after time after time," Boggs said.
"Our No. 1 criteria was who would help us bring additional clinical services to Ashland County," the hospital CEO said.
University Hospitals could help bring in specialists "we don't currently have" in Ashland County, or increase patient choice to more than one physician - such as neurologists, neurosurgeons or cardiologists, Boggs said.
Integrating with University Hospitals also could help in competition for contracts with major health insurance carriers, he added.
And University Hospital provides an accessible care organization with 300,000 customers. "We will be able to sell that product to local self-insured businesses," the Samaritan president said.
"The biggest thing (in the decision) was increasing competition and forcing down prices," he said.
Samaritan considered which health care systems were willing to invest the most money into the community. Boggs said he could not comment in detail on what some of those projects may be, but hinted they did not necessarily involve construction.
"Our facilities are in really good shape – so we really don't need bricks and mortar stuff," he said.
The Samaritan CEO said while he could not comment on what projects might be in the works, his wish list includes strengthening the base of physicians. "We have three physicians that are going to be retiring in the next year. Who can help replace those physicians as quickly as possible? (And) we just lost one physician to OhioHealth," he said.
Boggs was unwilling to disclose which other hospital systems Samaritan talked with. But the CEO said Samaritan's board met several times, prior to MedCentral's decision to affiliate with OhioHealth. "We decided the two of us would not be big enough together to make a difference," Boggs said. MedCentral's timetable also was significantly different from Samaritan's, he added.
The letter of intent may be signed in about a month, then the University Hospitals and Samaritan boards must prepare to sign off on final details. "It looks like Sept. 1 would be the earliest we could sign," Boggs said. The Ohio Attorney General's office will have 60 days to review the proposed agreement, he added.
If the two nonprofit hospitals integrate, Samaritan would continue to have its own board. But the Ashland hospital would also have possibly a couple of representatives on University Hospitals' community board – and those representatives might be eligible eventually to serve on UH's corporate board, he said.
Samaritan is now at least 102 years old. "Our intention is to end up with a better hospital than we have now, and one that will serve for years and years to come, and continue for another century," Boggs said.
"Our committee came to the conclusion that a relationship with University Hospitals would best meet our goals to secure and expand the clinical services provided here in Ashland County, compete in the rapidly changing world of healthcare, provide financial stability for the long term and improve the quality of care at Samaritan," he said.
Hospitals have experienced consolidation and shrinkage, Boggs said. "Every time more and more percentage of health care dollars runs through folks in Washington, D.C., less of it comes through us. If less dollars get here, we have to find ways to be more efficient and decrease our costs, so we can continue providing services to the community."
OhioHealth Senior Vice President for Regional Operations Cheryl Herbert issued a statement Tuesday that said the health care industry "is seeing more and more of this kind of affiliation in which smaller hospitals are joining with larger systems in order to better manage the challenging world of healthcare these days."
"OhioHealth and MedCentral are just this month celebrating our first anniversary together and are very excited about our plans for the future," she added.
Samaritan, founded in 1912, is anchored by Samaritan Hospital, a 55-bed acute-care, inpatient facility. The hospital, which operated on a $76 million budget in 2013, offers 24-hour emergency department services, a surgical suite and a birthing and women's unit.
The hospital system maintains satellite offices in Ashland County to offer convenient access to radiology and laboratory services, in addition to urgent care, pain care, occupational health and sleep medicine.
Samaritan Professional Corporation employs 35 physicians and primary care providers.
University Hospitals is a $3.5 billion health system that has continued to grow in recent years.
In January 2014, Parma Medical Center and Elyria Medical Center were integrated into UH, and the Cleveland system has been working with Robinson Hospital in Ravenna toward a letter of intent.
University Hospitals employs 25,000 Ohio residents and is the second largest employer in Northeast Ohio. About 1,500 physicians work within the system.
The Cleveland-based health system is comprised of an integrated network of 15 hospitals, including relationships with Southwest General and St. John Medical Center, 29 outpatient health centers throughout the region, and primary care physicians in 15 counties.
UH Case Medical Center is the health system's academic medical center, with a campus in Cleveland's University Circle that includes UH Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital, UH Seidman Cancer Center and UH MacDonald Women's Hospital.
"We expect the in-depth analysis that we will be undertaking will confirm that together we will best serve the residents of Ashland County and surrounding communities," said Thomas F. Zenty III, CEO of University Hospitals.
"Samaritan Regional Health System is a vital anchor institution in Ashland. We look forward to growing and enhancing the health system's services and programs to continue their long-standing tradition of providing superior-quality health care close to home," Zenty said.
UH Case Medical Center is ranked among America's 50 best hospitals by U.S. News & World Report in all 12 methodology-ranked specialties.
The primary affiliate of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Case Medical Center is home to clinical and research centers in areas including cancer, pediatrics, women's health, orthopedics, radiology,neuroscience, cardiology and cardiovascular surgery, digestive health, transplantation and genetics.
UH Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital in ranked among the top children's hospitals in the nation, and UH MacDonald Women's Hospital is Ohio's only hospital for women.
UH Seidman Cancer Center, part of the NCI-designated Case Comprehensive Cancer Center at Case Western Reserve University.
Construction currently is nearing completion on Samaritan's Acute Medical and Surgical Unit, providing for 100 percent private rooms.
Source : http://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/
