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A memorandum of understanding is expected to lead to an affiliation agreement. That announcement was made Tuesday in Waco by Glenn Robinson, president and CEO of Hillcrest Health System, and Dr. Alfred Knight, president and CEO of Scott & White.
“This is an area where we have a substantial part of the market and we were always looking for an opportunity in Waco - timing is everything,” Knight said.
“The proposed partnership with Scott & White will create evermore a comprehensive health care delivery system while aligning necessary resources to develop new and needed services for all of Central Texas,” Robinson said.
Partnering with an academic research hospital will enable Hillcrest to offer the latest in treatments and technology to its patients in the Waco area, he said. The hospital will retain its name and remain a faith-based organization.
While the Hillcrest campuses will be governed by the new board, the Hillcrest Family Health Center, the primary care clinic system, will remain independent.
Dr. Stephen Raley, executive director of Hillcrest Family Health Center, said changes will be seamless for Hillcrest patients.
“We believe that this partnership is in Hillcrest’s best interest because it ensures
quality local health care for our community in the long term,” Robinson said.
Scott & White has had a presence in Waco for more than 20 years and this partnership will enable the Temple medical center to bring services to Waco that previously had not been available, Knight said.
Knight said Scott & White had determined in the last few years it needed to change how it was growing and began developing partnerships with other health care systems in Central Texas.
“This is the culmination of what will be our best strategy,” he said. “We see Hillcrest Baptist Medical growing. We see its influence, regionally, growing.”
Hillcrest’s newest campus near Interstate 35 and Highway 6 in Waco is expected to open in May 2009.
Last year, Scott & White opened its 50-bed Continuing Care Hospital on its west campus in Temple and University Medical Campus, a 72-bed hospital, in Round Rock. Scott & White began discussing a strategic alignment with Metroplex HealthCare System in Killeen last year, which would involve Scott & White obtaining one-third interest in the Killeen hospital.
Earlier this year Scott & White signed a final agreement with Lake of the Hills Regional Medical Center to build a hospital in Marble Falls. That arrangement includes Scott & White managing the Llano hospital, and the physicians in the Hoerster Group, which includes six regional clinics, joining Scott & White staff.
Scott & White operates 27 clinic sites, not including the Salado clinic scheduled to open in early 2009.
In terms of growth, Scott & White’s goal is to go to areas that want to partner with the Temple group, Knight said.
Scott & White doesn’t anticipate this affiliation fostering competition between its Temple campus and Hillcrest, Knight said. Scott & White’s Temple campus has focused on becoming an academic medical center with expanded research and education initiatives, he said.
Health care is a businesses with costs, safety and quality as primary issues, he said. Being under the umbrella of a larger organization enables medical centers to share best practices.
“Scott & White also brings, by its size, leverage . . . in terms of the supply chain, leverage in terms of contracting, and leverage in terms of access to capital,” Knight said.
Knight said Scott & White would rely on input from the Waco community and physicians to determine what services it might bring to the area.
Scott & White has a mission of bringing research and education to communities it serves, but that too would be determined by the desires of the Waco community.