Hospital mergers have surged over the past few years so it should come as no surprise that an alliance of seven hospital systems in New Jersey and Pennsylvania have come to together to form AllSpire Health Partners.
Although technically not a merger, the alliance is being called the largest health care consortium in the country, according to an official release.
Twenty-five hospitals will be included in the seven-hospital system giving the alliance a service area of more than 6 million people and a combined revenue of $10.5 billion.
Dr. Ronald Swinfard, president of Lehigh Valley Health Network and board officer of AllSpire Health Partners, told DOTmed News that the alliance is focused on improving quality and reducing costs, and not so much on forming a large network to leverage negotiating power with GPOs and insurers.
"We are all facing the same challenges, we all need to acquire new competencies to manage population health and financial and clinical risk," he said.
Swinfard said it all began a little over two years ago in casual conversation with fellow hospital CEOs in the area.
"We all were starting some initiatives [to try to deal with the changes] and realized that each of us had some areas of best practices in different areas. So a light bulb goes off and we thought 'couldn't we do this less expensively if we could do this collectively?'" said Swinfard.
For the time being, hospitals and patients would see no difference at each individual hospital. But over time, as best practices are acquired, there could be some evident changes in practice, according to Swinfard.
"I've heard all my life that this country has to slow down the cost of care yet sustain the high-quality care that the U.S. provides," said Swinfard. "If we can begin to provide the very best practices across seven systems like this, it should reduce expenses and sustain — if not elevate — quality and get us to the future."
