Health

16 HEALTH • Summer 2018 UMass Memorial Health Care marks 20 years \\ Grant Welker T wo decades ago, the Worcester hospital industry entered a new era at a time when independent hospitals were still fairly common. Memorial Hospital and UMass Medical Center became one entity, a marriage that took years to feel natural and one that forever changed health care in Central Massachusetts. TWO DECADES At the time, officials from both UMass and Memorial portrayed the marriage as one born of necessity, with high insurance costs and an anticipated heightened competition from Saint Vincent Hospital's new $215-million downtown Worcester campus. A merg- er between two local enti- ties was called more ideal than one in which a larger partner would come in to swallow one or both hospi- tals. "There's nothing like the threat of a provider in Boston coming in than to get two rivals to come together," said Douglas Brown, the president of UMass Memorial Community Hospitals and the net- work's chief administrative officer. State officials quickly backed the deal in 1997, and the merger was complete by the end of March 1998. The deal made what was reported to be the second-largest such hospital system in the state behind only Boston-based Partners HealthCare. Two decades ago, the hospitals brought a combined $640 million in annual revenue and 700 hospital beds into the newly born entity. Today, rev- enue has ballooned to $2.5 billion, and the UMass sys- tem has more than 1,000 beds. "It's come a long way, and it's changed dramatically," said Dr. Stephen Tosi, the chief medical officer for UMass Memorial Health Care and the chairman of the surgical department at Memorial Hospital at the time of the merger. "We were much smaller then (after the merger). We're a system now," he said. The merger hasn't made UMass Memorial Health Care immune from industry challenges, of course, even from the start. Later in 1998, UMass eliminated roughly 100 middle-man- agement jobs that were suddenly duplicitous. The next year, UMass closed PrimeMed Immediate Care Center in Fitchburg because it was losing money, and transferred patients to its other sites. But the fledgling health system was also making investments. At the time it was created, the network was on the cusp of building a new inpatient facility in Leominster, expanding operating room capacity at Marlborough Hospital, and adding a cancer treatment facility in Fitchburg. UMass has made other changes more recently. The system closed psychi- atric beds at its University Campus last year but is planning a 120-bed psychiatric hospital to open in Worcester next year. This year, it announced closures of Plumley Village Health Services, endoscopy services at Clinton Hospital, inpatient pediatrics and a cardiac rehabilitation unit in Leominster, and urgent care in Fitchburg. Still, UMass finds itself among the major players in Massachusetts health care. It has one of just five burn cen- ters in the state, one of nine level-one trauma centers and one of just six academic medical centers, and the only one outside Boston. The number of medical interns and residents it educates places fourth in the state. A history of mergers, and more that could come The merger of UMass Medical Center and Memorial Hospital was a momentous turn in both hospitals' histories, but con- solidations have become the norm in health care, includ- ing in Massachusetts. The number of hospitals statewide is now about 65, half the number of a half-century ago and a trend likely to continue, said Alan Sager, a professor in Boston University's School of Public Health. Sager has doubts about whether cost savings have resulted in better patient care or simply better bottom lines. "We have to ask," he said, "who is that good for?" Dr. Stephen Tosi: "We're a system now." Douglas Brown: Rivals joined in desire to keep local control UMass Memorial Health Care's University Campus in Worcester P H O T O / G R A N T W E L K E R

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