Editor’s Note: In evaluating the impact of hospital mergers, the FTC would have to specify a definition of what what the term means so as to cover situations such as the following alliance between the Cleveland Clinic and MedStar.
From: Washington Business Journal
MedStar wins special status with Cleveland Clinic
The Cleveland Clinic already has 14 heart-care “affiliate” hospitals throughout the country, members of a program that sends the clinic’s expert doctors to smaller hospitals to manage their cardiology programs for a fee.
MedStar Health, the Washington region’s largest cardiology provider, didn’t want management help. But the hospital system nevertheless pined for the Cleveland Clinic’s scientific expertise and research.
The end result was Monday’s announcement of an “alliance,” a new model for the Cleveland Clinic that establishes much more of a sibling relationship than a parent-and-child dynamic of the affiliate program.
Initially, the alliance doesn’t seem to have much to it. It doesn’t obligate new spending or mandate many specific actions for either entity. There’s no precise way to measure its success or failure. And even though D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray spoke at the unveiling, speculating the research might spur some sort of new facility on the nearby McMillan Reservoir redevelopment site, we shouldn’t expect to hear many concrete results out of the alliance for awhile.
But MedStar doctor-scientists and Cleveland Clinic researchers can now access each others’ research registries and collaborate on new projects designed to make treatment for heart disease less invasive and more effective.
“We’ve also realized that you have [at MedStar Washington Hospital Center] a huge registry, and we have a huge registry,” said Cleveland Clinic CEO Dr. Toby Cosgrove. “The combination of the two provides a great opportunity to understand the nuances of cardiovascular disease better. We also recognize that we can learn from each other.”
One other feature of the “alliance,” which all sides emphasize is not a partnership in the legal sense: Joint branding, allowing MedStar to bask in the reflected glow of the clinic’s world-wide reputation.