VIRGINIA MASON FRANCISCAN HEALTH
The newly formed Virginia Mason Franciscan Health is keeping CHI Franciscan’s mission control room, which is made up of a team of doctors and nurses reviewing real-time data on patients and making calls to front-line providers.
The team at Seattle s Virginia Mason Franciscan Health is embarking on something of an experiment cherry-picking quality-improvement tools from their two merging organizations. The goal is to bring quality levels up across all the hospitals now under the new brand.
The deal merging Virginia Mason and CHI Franciscan is a little over 100 days old, and healthcare players in Washington state and elsewhere are cautiously watching how they integrate operations.
Leadership in a time of uncertainty with health care leaders Sydney Kurle | Jan 19, 2021
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From PPE shortages, the COVID-19 pandemic, staffing shortages and wildfires, 2020 has thrown as many curveballs as it could to the health care industry in Washington. Gary Kaplan, CEO of Virginia Mason, Ketul Patel, CEO of CHI Franciscan and Beth Johnson, CEO of Coordinated Care, joined us as the final keynote of our 2021 Washington State of Reform Virtual Health Policy Conference to talk about the lessons they have learned in this unique year.
“It has been really fast paced, but I think one of my takeaways and learnings is the speed of change, and how rapid the environment has evolved and changed,” said Kaplan. “We as leaders, and I think all of us in the health care industry, needed to develop new skill sets related to navigating fast paced, real time change.”
CHI Franciscan s Mission Control Command Center bullpen
CHI Franciscan, the Pacific Northwest Division of CommonSpirit Health, consists of 12 hospitals with more than 12,000 employees – including over 8,000 providers and nurses, more than 200 primary and specialty care clinics, and a clinically integrated network with over 5,000 providers. The 1,300-bed health system, one of the largest in Washington state, sees nearly 325,000 emergency department visits and more than 300,000 inpatient days each year.
THE PROBLEM
In August 2019, six months before the pandemic hit, CHI Franciscan partnered with GE Healthcare to launch the state s first Mission Control Command Center to enhance patient safety, seamlessly manage patient flow, schedule procedures, and ultimately get patients home sooner.
Dive Brief:
CHI Franciscan and Virginia Mason Health System, two Washington state health systems, will now operate as one, under the name, Virginia Mason Franciscan Health. CommonSpirit Health, one of the nation s largest nonprofit health systems, is the parent company of CHI Franciscan.
The combined group will operate as a nonprofit entity in Washington and is now a subsidiary of CommonSpirit, according to the agreement, effective Jan. 1.
Together the two will operate 11 hospitals and nearly 300 sites of care. The chief executive role will be split, at least initially, between the system s two leaders; Gary Kaplan, former CEO of Virginia Mason and Ketul Patel, the former leader of CHI Franciscan. Patel does have an additional title, president of the Pacific Northwest for CommonSpirit.
Detailed Agenda for the 2021 Washington Conference now available! Emily Boerger | Dec 10, 2020
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We have carefully crafted these panel topics after a long process of stakeholder engagement that helped us zero in on the health care policy topics most important and relevant to Washington.
Patty Kuderer:
Ketul Patel:
Jeff Duchin, MD:
Nick Bath:
Tom Sebastian:
Vicky Lowe: Paul Harris:
Caucus Chair, House Republican Caucus
These are just a sampling of the speakers confirmed to be a part of the program on January 6th and 7th.
If you’re not yet registered to join us, register today to reserve your spot and hear from this great list of speakers. You can also drop us a note if you have any questions about the conference. We look forward to seeing you there!