Few, if any, issues are more vital in Clark County than these two: health care and jobs creation. If the preliminary view of the merger between a local hospital and a regional health system proves accurate — and there’s no compelling reason to believe otherwise — both of those priorities will be well served by the new alliance.
Officials at Southwest Washington Medical Center and PeaceHealth appear to have performed abundant due diligence leading up to Wednesday’s announced affiliation agreement between the two nonprofits. Two concerns shared by Clark County residents are valid and understandable:
Will Southwest be able to maintain local control of its operations? In an Oct. 24 Columbian story by Aaron Corvin, Peter Adler, senior vice president and chief strategy officer for the Bellevue-based hospital chain, said “the day-to-day management and month-to-month oversight” of Southwest would stay “in the community.” Moreover, spending decisions in each of PeaceHealth’s soon-to-be eight hospitals are made by local boards “but within parameters. It’s a balance that has worked really well in all of our communities,” Adler said.
This same concern about local autonomy was given a local perspective in that same story by John White, who served 12 years on the Southwest board. White said PeaceHealth was chosen for the merger because “we wanted to be talking to a partner that would retain local authority with a local board.” Furthermore, a Wednesday news release noted that funds raised by the Southwest Foundation will be spent “exclusively” on services and programs that benefit the hospital, the city and the county.
Secondly, do Southwest’s 3,000-plus employees need to worry about PeaceHealth swooping in and making massive changes in personnel? The aforementioned vows of sovereignty seem to alleviate that worry. However, with a merger of this magnitude, no one should expect business as usual. Southwest President Joe Kortum said the hospital and its new partner will “integrate our human resources, our financial systems, our clinical systems. It’s going to be exciting work. It’s going to be fun and challenging and probably a lot of headaches. All of the above. But it’s going to be a major, positive thing for our community.”
Keep in mind that recession-related job changes are on the table for virtually every organization these days. Earlier this year, Southwest laid off 30 workers for reasons related to the economy.
But beyond those two concerns, this merger provides plenty of evidence that — in terms of health care and jobs creation — bigger is better. The hospital (with the new name PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center) will become part of a sprawling health network. The regional health system will be strengthened as Southwest affiliates with Longview’s PeaceHealth St. John Medical Center. New and expanded programs and services are expected in family practice and residency training, medical labs, health care for people with low incomes and in many other areas of health care.
As for jobs creation, the impact with be profound: about 340 new jobs coming to the community as PeaceHealth moves its corporate headquarters here. Kortum correctly asked, “How many times in Clark County do we have an organization like PeaceHealth say we are going to be moving hundreds of good-paying jobs with benefits into your community?”
The merger awaits approval by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, the state attorney general’s office and the state insurance commissioner’s office. Surely such scrutiny will reveal this to be a win-win-win for a hospital, a health system chain and a community where the need for new jobs had become critical even before the lingering economic crisis.
