San Francisco-based Dignity Health and Englewood, Colorado-based Catholic Health Initiatives have completed their merger, coming together to form a new $29 billion health system.
Called CommonSpirit Health, the new nonprofit system’s national office is in Chicago. It operates 142 hospitals and more than 700 care sites, as well as research programs, home health programs, virtual care services and living communities. Local facilities will keep operating under their current names.
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CommonSpirit has locations in 21 states: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin.
CHI CEO Kevin Lofton and Dignity Health president and CEO Lloyd Dean will serve as co-CEOs for the health system.
“Our new organization will bring the expertise of a national health system to neighborhoods across the country,” Lofton said in a statement. “Whether it’s a neurological institute in Arizona, a 25-bed critical access facility in North Dakota, a mobile lung cancer screening program in Tennessee, or a ‘hospital at home’ in Nebraska, CommonSpirit Health will expand the best approaches from across our new organization. Our whole will be much greater than the sum of our parts.”
CommonSpirit intends to focus on five key areas:
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- Expanding clinical expertise in primary, acute and specialty care and focusing on patients with chronic conditions
- Moving toward providing services outside hospitals
- Investing in technologies that make care more convenient
- Tackling the underlying causes of poor health and improving health outcomes for vulnerable populations
- Keeping a highly-skilled workforce
“Too many people still can’t access quality healthcare in their communities,” Dean said in a statement. “America’s healthcare system needs big changes, and we have a big goal of improving the health of millions of people in this country. CommonSpirit Health will be a champion for the common good and extend access to good health for everyone, especially those who are most in need.”
Back in December 2017, CHI and Dignity signed a definitive agreement to combine and form a new system.
The CHI-Dignity news is the latest in an ongoing merger trend. Last fall, two Texas healthcare giants — Baylor Scott & White Health in Dallas and Memorial Hermann Health System in Houston — signed a letter of intent to merge into a combined system.
Photo: Nasco, Getty Images
