Portland-based Oregon Well being & Science College and Legacy Well being are transferring forward with a plan to unite as one well being system referred to as OHSU Well being that was introduced in August 2023. The mixed system can have 12 hospitals, 100-plus places and about 30,000 staff and greater than 3 million affected person visits a yr.
OHSU is a part of the State of Oregon, established in Oregon regulation as a public company. Legacy is a neighborhood, nonprofit well being system that had been struggled financially, in keeping with information reviews.
Within the coming months OHSU and Legacy Well being will submit an utility to the State of Oregon’s Healthcare MarketPlace Oversight Program (HCMO), which evaluations sure healthcare enterprise transactions in Oregon. This program, established by the Legislature in 2021, “evaluations proposed enterprise offers to verify they are going to assist and never harm Oregon’s shared targets of well being fairness, decrease client prices, elevated entry and higher care. This system applies to mergers, acquisitions, and different enterprise offers that contain well being care entities and meet sure standards.”After the HCMO utility is filed, the state regulatory evaluate course of will start.
“Our settlement with OHSU is a vital milestone towards making a stronger well being system higher able to delivering for our sufferers, our folks and our communities,” mentioned Legacy Well being Board Chair Charles Wilhoite, in an announcement. “Following many months of considerate collaboration between our organizations, we consider that is the proper subsequent step to create vital alternatives to enhance the well being of our area for a few years to come back.”
“Proper now, elevated demand and capability restraints are retaining sufferers across the area from accessing the providers OHSU Well being is uniquely able to offering,” mentioned OHSU President Danny Jacobs, M.D., M.P.H., in an announcement. “As a single, built-in system, we will higher guarantee sufferers obtain the proper degree of care on the proper facility with out having to journey exterior the area, whether or not it is advanced most cancers care on Marquam Hill or behavioral well being therapy in Northeast Portland.”
“With better alternatives and an enhanced system from which to develop our shared future as OHSU Well being, the expanded well being system will stabilize and develop within the modern providers, instruments and applied sciences important for the care of individuals by our built-in groups, and permit us to proceed to coach the subsequent technology of clinicians, scientists and educators,” mentioned OHSU Board Chair Wayne Monfries, in an announcement. “We’re enthusiastic about what we will obtain for our communities.”
With a capital dedication from OHSU of roughly $1 billion over 10 years, financed principally by bond choices, the built-in system will make investments in care infrastructure to enhance the standard of important providers and well being outcomes for communities throughout the area. Following transaction shut, a Legacy neighborhood basis unbiased of OHSU will obtain funds equal to Legacy Well being’s money much less its debt and a negotiated withhold, for making grants in assist of well being, well being care and well being fairness in our communities.
