Content area
Full Text
Can a Catholic and a non-Catholic hospital merge, retaining their own identities while presenting a united front? It's a marriage that can work-but a long engagement is definitely recommended. That's the advice coming from the 10-month
union of Chandler (Ariz.) Regional Hospital and St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix. "Take your time-almost like in a relationship," says Linda Hunt, former senior vice president and chief operating officer of St. Joseph's and current chief administrative officer there. "Date awhile, get engaged, look at cultures and missions, and identify potential issues up front before there is a lot of pressure on both of you."
The affiliation papers between 149-bed Chandler and 477-- bed St. Joseph's were signed last December, but finding the right partner took Chandler four years. "We spent a lot of time looking at core values and cultural fit ... and it's a good thing we did," says David Althoff, a trustee on Chandler Hospital's board for 26 years. "The work you do ahead of time is the most important work you do, especially with a smaller organization joining a larger one.... In 1995 we looked at the rapidly growing [Phoenix] marketplace and realized that, although we were doing well, we couldn't keep up with our building needs-we needed capital." Subsequent annual environmental assessments kept confirming that need-and the need for a partner.
By August 1998, Chandler had formed an integration task force of six physicians and six trustees, with Althoff as its chair. The task force put out a request for proposals and received 13 responses, from for-profit, not-for-profit, Catholic, and non-- Catholic facilities. Of the three that made the short list, Chandler ultimately picked Catholic Healthcare West (CHW), a 48-- hospital system with a majority of its facilities in California, two in Nevada, and St. Joseph's in Phoenix. Together, the two hospitals constitute the Catholic Healthcare West Arizona region, along with St. Joseph's-affiliated Barrow Neurological Institute and three area clinics. Chandler used to be considered rural, but Phoenix's sprawl has now overtaken it. However, Althoff said, Chandler's patient base still covers 15,000 square miles-hence the need for more clinics, more expansion. It is 25 miles from St. Joseph's. The former president and CEO of Chandler, David Covert, was...