The Boards of Directors of Clarion Hospital, Indiana Regional Medical Center, and Punxsutawney Area Hospital have agreed to formally evaluate a stronger affiliation among the organizations to improve the health of the communities they serve. The respective organizations’ Boards have executed a memorandum of understanding that outlines the principles of an affiliation that will permit management of each hospital to proceed with customary regulatory review processes through the balance of 2014 leading to a formal new collaborative entity in early 2015.
“This model is what we think is the road map for the continuing success of independent rural healthcare providers,” said the three CEOs in a joint statement. “As founding members of the Pennsylvania Mountain Health Care Alliance (PMHA), we have an outstanding record of working collaboratively over the course of the last decade on sharing resources, developing new programs, pursuing grants and achieving significant cost reductions.”
Some of the notable achievements of PMHA include the formation of a risk retention insurance company to address the professional liability needs of the member hospitals and physicians, a self-insured health insurance product covering over 7,500 employees, multi-million dollar federal grants to enhance information technology through the building of an IT network infrastructure serving the membership and countless group purchasing initiatives that have leveraged pricing based upon collective purchase volumes. PMHA was formed based upon the premise that similar hospitals serving different communities did not need to compete but could accomplish our missions better together.
In the face of relentless change in health care and the need to be more accountable for cost and quality, the three hospitals have elected to pioneer a new collaborative model of care for our communities future health delivery that will allow local decision making but more formally commit the organizations to work together for the common interests of our Region.
The new Pennsylvania Mountain Care Network (PMCN) encompasses three hospitals with more than 2,200 employees, 200 physicians, hundreds of volunteers, an extensive primary care network, urgent care centers, extensive community services, and a combined net patient revenue of more than $220 million.
The affiliation does not include the combination of assets and is not considered a merger. However, management of the affiliated assets will now be vested in a Board made up of the directors from the three hospitals.
The guiding principles for this affiliation include:
• Controlling costs
• Remaining independent with continued local governance and boards
• Purchasing benefits
• Improved access
• An expanded network of specialty physicians
• Improved patient outcomes through shared best practices
“Working together benefits the communities we serve and keeps our greatest county-wide assets viable for the foreseeable future,” according to Stephen A. Wolfe, President & CEO of Indiana Regional Medical Center.
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