September 22nd, 2016 by WCBC Radio

As part of the Western Maryland Health System’s strategic planning for the next three years, the WMHS Board of Directors is exploring a potential clinical partnership with an academic medical center. 

“Many community hospitals are seeking clinical partnerships with academic medical centers to help make resources available to patients and staff that are often difficult for community hospitals to provide on their own,” explains Barry Ronan, WMHS President and CEO.  “These partnerships are helping community hospitals respond to the continuing challenges providing value-based care and becoming high-performing, cost-effective healthcare systems that deliver exceptional value to their patients and other stakeholders.”

An important consideration for WMHS is greater access to physician specialists and sub-specialists to complement the existing clinical programs at WMHS.

“Over the next three to five years, we will need physicians in the specialties of thoracic surgery, vascular surgery and neurosurgery, as well as support for our highly rated cardiac surgery program” continues Ronan.  “A relationship with an academic medical center can help bring those physician specialists to WMHS so these services are provided locally.  This type of partnership could also provide access to residency programs and its reputation can facilitate our physician recruitment efforts.” 

After a thorough analysis, the WMHS Board of Directors identified three academic medical centers as potential partners.

“The three were selected because each seems to be a good fit with our culture, has similar experience with other hospitals, and would bring overall value to our organization and the community,” Ronan explains.

All three have expressed interest in a potential clinical partnership.  As part of this process, representatives from the three organizations will be visiting WMHS over the next ten days to learn more about the local health system’s goals for a clinical partnership.  The academic medical centers will then submit formal proposals about how they would work with WMHS to achieve these objectives later this fall.