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Merger alters health care landscape

Nonprofit moving its headquarters to Vancouver

By Aaron Corvin, Columbian Port & Economy Reporter
Published: February 27, 2011, 12:00am
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Southwest Washington Medical Center went into lockdown Tuesday night following a shooting in central Vancouver.
Southwest Washington Medical Center went into lockdown Tuesday night following a shooting in central Vancouver. A hospital spokesman said a patient was a security risk." Photo Gallery

Federal reform aside, the biggest change to Clark County’s health care industry last year came in the form of a nonprofit with $1.3 billion in revenues and a deeply held mission to serve the sick and the poor.

Bellevue-based PeaceHealth is the new corporate parent of Southwest Washington Health System, which runs Southwest Washington Medical Center. Seeking more borrowing power and cost savings, the two nonprofit health systems completed merger negotiations last year, winning approval from federal and state agencies.

The merger sets up a sprawling health organization, with roughly 15,000 employees, eight hospitals dotting Washington, Oregon and Alaska, and nearly $2 billion in revenues.

It also injects the Catholic-sponsored PeaceHealth, along with its new subsidiary, Southwest — which employs some 3,400 full-time and part-time workers — into a highly competitive health care arena. That arena includes the 220-bed Legacy Salmon Creek Medical Center. The Salmon Creek hospital was proposed in the early part of the last decade amid fierce community debate over whether it was needed. Backers argued it would be a victory for competition and geographic convenience in an otherwise one-hospital town dominated by Vancouver-based Southwest. Opponents lobbed arguments against it, including the claim that a new hospital would duplicate services that were already available.

Now, PeaceHealth has arrived in town with many plans, including to develop a single efficient electronic records system and to expand Southwest’s family practice and residency training program.

Jonathan Avery, chief administrative officer for Legacy Salmon Creek Medical Center, said PeaceHealth’s arrival won’t change the Salmon Creek hospital’s core mission. “Our goal, always, is to provide the best health care we can to the residents of this community,” Avery said. “That does not change.”

PeaceHealth also plans to set up a “shared services center” in Vancouver by relocating its corporate headquarters in Bellevue and some back-office workers. The majority of the 340 jobs the nonprofit plans to move to Vancouver would arrive between 2012 and 2014.

Meanwhile, both Southwest and Legacy Salmon Creek have recently garnered awards for their work. Southwest’s emergency department has been recognized for achieving some of the highest patient experience scores in the nation, based on recent survey data from Professional Research Consultants.

And Legacy Salmon Creek’s Total Joint Program has earned the Gold Seal of Approval for health care quality. The nonprofit hospital received the recognition from the Joint Commission, a national nonprofit which operates accreditation programs and has awarded Legacy disease-specific care certifications for knee, shoulder and hip joint replacement surgery.

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Columbian Port & Economy Reporter