HOSPITAL MERGERS: Santa Monica-UCLA, Orthopaedic Hospital To Join Forces
"Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center and Orthopaedic Hospital are expected to agree today to form an alliance designed to lower operating costs, expand medical service and enhance research," the Los Angeles Times reports. The union is "the latest in a movement by health care providers struggling to stay afloat amid shrinking margins and increased competition from managed care." Under terms of the alliance, Orthopaedic would transfer its in-patient orthopaedic care to Santa Monica-UCLA within the next five years. Santa Monica-UCLA "would add new services, such as family medicine and pediatrics, to Orthopaedic's downtown location." Both facilities will maintain separate boards of directors. The Los Angeles Times reports that at its March 18 meeting in Oakland, the UC Board of Regents "is expected to approve the deal." Gerald Levey, medical sciences provost at UCLA, said, "Our long-term strategy is to build a major health care network. To compete in the marketplace, one needs a broad number of patients" (Hua, 3/3).
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