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Two hospitals join for heart surgeries Providence, RVMC share program By Bill Kettler Medford�s two hospitals have agreed to operate jointly one open-heart surgery program rather than compete for business. Providence Health System will own a 24 percent share of Rogue Valley Medical Center�s open-heart surgery program under an agreement announced Thursday. Providence Health System operates Providence Medford Medical Center, which does not perform cardiac surgery. Asante Health System operates Rogue Valley Medical Center, which has performed heart surgery since 1975. Heart patients will see no changes in care, said Roy Vinyard, chief executive officer for Asante Health System. All surgeries will still be performed at RVMC. "Logistically, very little will change," he said. The arrangement, which takes effect today, will prevent duplication of expensive support services, said Medford cardiac surgeon Dr. Roger Hall. "This is too small an area to have two open-heart programs," Hall said. "We would have had to reduce our efficiency to run two programs." Hall said a hospital needs to perform about 350 heart surgeries per year to begin to operate efficiently. He and his colleagues perform about 650 heart surgeries per year at RVMC, serving clients from Southern Oregon and Northern California. "Cardiac surgery is one of those areas where, typically, more is better," said Chuck Wright, Providence�s chief executive for Southern Oregon. Wright said Providence�s lack of a cardiac surgery program hurt the hospital during contract negotiations with insurance companies in the early 1990s. Providence wanted to create its own cardiac surgery program as part of its long-term growth plan. Cardiac surgeons balked at the idea of creating a second heart surgery program in Jackson County because there were not enough patients to keep both units operating efficiently. "The entire medical staff said it was against two programs," Hall said. The two hospitals began talking about creating a joint program more than two years ago. "We wanted to do what was in the best interests of the community," Vinyard said. "Competing wasn�t in the community�s best interest." Providence will pay cash to Asante for its share of the cardiac surgery program and assume a proportionate share of its profits or losses. Wright and Vinyard declined to reveal specific figures. Wright said Providence will pay Asante "about the same amount it would cost us to develop a competing program. "It�s in the millions," he said. A seven-member board, including physicians and representatives from each hospital, will oversee the joint venture. The agreement runs for five years. Either side could choose to terminate it when it comes up for renewal, but Vinyard noted the agreement has been crafted to encourage both sides to renew it. "We�ve made it very difficult for us to walk away from this agreement," he said. "We want this to be a long-term arrangement." RVMC was named one of the 100 top cardiac-care hospitals in the United States last summer. A national consulting firm evaluated more than 700 hospitals that perform heart surgery on the basis of each patient�s hospital stay, the rate of post-surgical complications and surgery cost. Providence and Asante also agreed to work jointly on chemical dependency treatment and adolescent mental health programs. Providence agreed to share the costs of the Genesis Recovery Center, which Asante has operated independently. There is presently no comprehensive adolescent mental health treatment program in Southern Oregon, but under the agreement Asante and Providence will work together to develop one. Wright said competing hospitals very rarely share equipment and programs. "When we started looking at this two years ago," he said, "only one other community where there were two hospitals had joined cardiology services. "We�re in uncharted waters." Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.