Newswise — SEATTLE – (Nov. 1, 2016) – CHI Franciscan Health and Virginia Mason Health System, two leading health care providers in the Pacific Northwest, today announced they have signed a letter of intent to create a clinical partnership and strategic affiliation designed to expand access and improve care quality and safety across the Puget Sound region.
The alliance will result in a comprehensive regional health network offering more services in more places across the Puget Sound area and along the I-5 corridor. The agreement also enables Tacoma-based CHI Franciscan to establish its second formal relationship in Seattle while allowing Seattle-based Virginia Mason to further its presence in the south Puget Sound area.
CHI Franciscan and Virginia Mason will remain separate organizations as they work together. CHI Franciscan will remain a faith-based health system, and Virginia Mason will remain a non-religious health system. The breadth of patient care services provided by both organizations will not change in any way as a result of this alliance.
“This unprecedented collaboration will permit both organizations to utilize their strengths and share best practices to enhance quality and access to care, operate more efficiently and work together to offer pioneering advances in medicine,” said Ketul J. Patel, CHI Franciscan Health CEO. “We are proud to be joining forces with Virginia Mason, one of the nation’s top health care systems, to complete a Puget Sound-wide network by collaborating to offer enhanced services in the Seattle and Tacoma Metro area.”
“Our organization is committed to making health care better, safer, more accessible and more affordable for everyone,” said Virginia Mason Chairman and CEO Gary S. Kaplan, MD. “Our teams are eager to work with CHI Franciscan to develop new models of care that can ultimately improve the patient experience across the region.”
Representatives of both organizations will spend the next several months evaluating opportunities that Virginia Mason and CHI Franciscan are uniquely positioned to address through collaboration. Virginia Mason has collaborated with CHI Franciscan for many years to provide radiation oncology services at the CHI Franciscan hospital in Federal Way. Virginia Mason also has a large medical facility in Federal Way, offering an array of outpatient medical and surgical services.
This is a transformative time for CHI Franciscan, which is pioneering the way health care is delivered through its leading systems of care covering more than 8,000 square miles and more than 2 million residents of the Pacific Northwest. CHI Franciscan recently announced its planned $540 million development of a state-of-the-art hospital in Silverdale and expansion of its St. Anthony Hospital in Gig Harbor, as well as several innovative physician alignment relationships such as that with The Doctors Clinic in Kitsap County that grew it’s aligned and employed physician ranks to over 1,100 physicians and providers in the region. In summer 2016, it also launched its new partnership venture with CityMD, the leading urgent care provider in the New York metro area, and opened the first urgent care center of its kind in Seattle, with many more planned regionally. Virginia Mason is a recognized international leader for health care quality and patient safety. Last year, it was chosen by the National Health Service (NHS) of England to implement principles of Virginia Mason’s management methodology, the Virginia Mason Production System, to elevate quality and safety and control costs at several NHS hospitals. Health care professionals from around the world attend seminars in the Virginia Mason Production System offered by the Virginia Mason Institute in Seattle and elsewhere. Virginia Mason is designated as an orthopedic surgery center of excellence by the national Employers Centers of Excellence Network. Moreover, the medical center is consistently recognized for care quality and patient safety by independent organizations such as The Leapfrog Group, Healthgrades and U.S. News & World Report.
RSS