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The challenges facing one Lansing healthcare system have been many during the 1990s, including joint ventures, possible sales, and name changes. Ingham Regional Medical Center is emerging from a period of turbulence with a more solid base for the future.
All of Lansing's healthcare systems were looking into reducing bed capacity in the late 1980s and early 1990s, including the county-owned Ingham Medical Center and Lansing General Hospital. Aligning with each other was seen as a means of taking advantage of economies of scale, and fewer beds...in a time of shrinking length-of-stay statistics...was one benefit.
Dennis Litos was involved in those consolidation talks in 1992. As vice president of business development at Lansing General, he worked with three other executives of the two hospitals on the alliance. The other three have all retired, and Litos emerged as the system's president and chief executive officer.
A key was a purchase of Ingham Medical Center from the county. That accomplished, the system became known as Michigan Capital Health Care.
Another challenge was the merging of two medical staffs. Litos says discussions became somewhat territorial, and "during that first two or three years, we had a considerable amount of fallout. We lost some market share because of it. We had physicians feeling out both St. Lawrence and Sparrow. That got us off to a slower start than we would have expected."
The level of cash reserves was also a problem, as neither hospital had a particularly strong position prior to the merger. That led to discussions of bringing in a partner, and the ultimately controversial courtship of the for-profit Columbia/HCA. An equal partnership was ruled illegal by Michigan Attorney General Frank...