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Media Releases
SynergyHealth, Froedtert & Community Health Boards Approve Affiliation
Affiliation Will Expand Local Access to A Higher Level of Care
West Bend, Wis. (May 14, 2008) – The SynergyHealth Board of Directors has approved a definitive agreement to affiliate with Froedtert & Community Health to enhance the value of healthcare delivery in Washington County. The affiliation process is expected to be complete by July 1.
Under the agreement, St. Joseph’s Hospital, the West Bend Clinic and the SynergyHealth Foundation will become part of Froedtert & Community Health. Froedtert & Community Health also includes Froedtert Hospital and Community Memorial Hospital in Menomonee Falls. Together with Columbia St. Mary’s, Froedtert & Community Health anticipates forming Progressive Health, a larger regional health system.
“This affiliation is the culmination of many months of study and work on the part of board members and senior leadership at the hospital and clinic,” said Greg Banaszynski, Chief Executive Officer of SynergyHealth, Inc.
Benefits of the affiliation include opportunities to improve care coordination across a broader network of providers and expand health care services available to patients in Washington County. The affiliation agreement includes plans to broaden care offerings in cancer, cardiovascular services, primary care and other services.
“We look forward to building on our existing partnership with St. Joseph’s Hospital and the West Bend Clinic,” said Bill Petasnick, President and CEO of Froedtert & Community Health. “We already serve many of the same patients and communities. This affiliation will allow us to expand local health care services and develop closer working relationships between providers across our growing system.”
Under the agreement, both St. Joseph’s Hospital and the West Bend Clinic will retain their names and a significant degree of local governance and decision-making for the provision of health care in Washington County. Leadership and staffing at St. Joseph’s Hospital, the West Bend Clinic and the SynergyHealth Foundation will not change as a result of the affiliation. The boards of directors for St. Joseph’s Hospital, the West Bend Clinic and SynergyHealth Foundation will be retained. Two community members of the hospital board will serve on the Froedtert & Community Health board in addition to a third member from the community who will serve on both the hospital board and Froedtert & Community Health board.
“We’re looking forward to a very positive and productive relationship with Froedtert & Community Health,” said Michael Laird, President of St. Joseph’s Hospital. “We believe this will make St. Joseph’s Hospital a destination hospital within one of the region’s top health care systems.”
“This relationship formalizes our existing linkages and sense of partnership with Froedtert and the Medical College of Wisconsin,” said Dr. Gregory Blommel, President and Medical Director of the West Bend Clinic. “As part of a larger system we can offer access to a broader continuum of care and recruit new specialists to the area. A collaborative clinical relationship with Froedtert & Community Health and the Medical College of Wisconsin will benefit our patients with chronic illness, with the ultimate goal of improving the health status of the community. Through this combination, we can offer the right care at the right time and in the right setting.”
“The Medical College of Wisconsin favorably supports the integration of Froedtert & Community Health with SynergyHealth,” said Peter Plantes, MD, CEO of Medical College Physicians. “We look forward to working both with St. Joseph’s Hospital and with the physicians at the West Bend Clinic, many of whom trained at the Medical College. Working with both St. Joseph’s Hospital and West Bend Clinic, the Medical College of Wisconsin can expand targeted sub-specialty services in Washington County. We look forward to delivering the full value of our academic medical center enterprise to patients and communities in Washington County.”
As part of the agreement, Froedtert & Community Health has committed to significant investments in the development of hospital and physician services in Washington County. This investment includes plans to create a more robust hospital campus, including the addition of a medical office building that will facilitate the future relocation and expansion of cancer services. The building will also provide space to specialists from the Medical College of Wisconsin and other physician groups.
Froedtert & Community Health will continue to support local community missions by investing in scholarships, community outreach and the accelerated development of local health care services by the West Bend Clinic and St. Joseph’s Hospital.
About St. Joseph’s Hospital
St. Joseph’s Hospital is an 80-bed, non-profit, acute care hospital serving West Bend and the greater Washington County area. The hospital has served the community since 1930 and, in 2005, built a new state of the art facility on Highway 45. The hospital offers a 24-hour Emergency Care Center including a state designated Level III trauma center. The hospital offers a New Life birthing center, Breast Care Program, cardiopulmonary rehab, inpatient behavioral health unit, general surgery, spine surgery, outpatient surgery, diagnostic services including a 64-slice CT, residential hospice care, sleep center, and cancer care including medical and radiation oncology.
About West Bend Clinic
West Bend Clinic, a primary care and multi-specialty group with over 70 physicians, has multiple clinic locations in Washington County (West Bend, Hartford, Jackson, and Kewaskum), and includes the West Bend Surgery Center, SynergyHealth Eye Center in Jackson and SynergyHealth Rehabilitation Center in West Bend.
About Froedtert & Community Health
Froedtert & Community Health is a regional hospital system formed in 2001 by Froedtert Hospital and Community Memorial Hospital in Menomonee Falls. Joining the capabilities of a 200-bed community hospital and a 450-bed academic medical center, Froedtert & Community Health delivers nationally recognized, cost-effective healthcare treatment and technologies from two hospitals and multiple clinic and program sites in Southeastern Wisconsin. In 2006, adult patient admissions for Froedtert & Community Health exceeded 34,000. Froedtert Hospital, together with the Medical College of Wisconsin, is the only academic medical center in Eastern Wisconsin and the area's only adult Level One Trauma Center. Froedtert Hospital has been recognized for service excellence under the J.D. Power and Associates Distinguished Hospital Program and has earned American Nurses Credentialing Center's (ANCC) highest honor, "Magnet" status. Community Memorial Hospital specializes in cardiovascular services, women's health, cancer care and advanced surgical procedures. Community Memorial Hospital is a 2006 recipient of the Wisconsin Forward Award, recognizing organizational excellence as defined by the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence. For more information, visit www.froedtert.com and www.communitymemorial.com.
Last Review Date: May 14, 2008 Online Editor(s): Rich Petre |
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