Two Major Healthcare Providers Consolidate In Indianapolis

The consolidation continues with the merger of two major healthcare providers in Indiana, both located in downtown Indianapolis.  According to The Indianapolis Business Journal, University Hospital and Methodist Hospital will now be in a single location known as Indiana University Health (IU Health).

Modern Healthcare reported that IU Health operates 18 hospitals and employs 29,000 people statewide and has already scheduled a July 1st date for emergency room consolidation.  Executive are still weighing the decision of building a new hospital or moving one of the hospital's main operations to the other's existing facility.  Officials believe physicians and administrators will have this figured out by Fall.

As we've stated in previous articles, healthcare consolidation is happening at a rapid rate and physicians are caught in the middle. Reimbursement pressure has caused large cost cutting techniques while still trying to focus on quality care for it's patients. That is much easier said than done. Some of these mergers are not necessarily bad and are in fact necessary if health systems want to maintain autonomy.  We believe this merger makes sense due to the proximity of the hospitals as well as their ability to maximize facilities.

"We're going to have one adult academic health center," said Jonathan Curtright, chief operating officer of University and Methodist hospitals. "The logic of this is that we need to best utilize our resources. We need to have fully utilized facilities."

By: Tommy King