Q. How did this novel form of cooperation come about?
Lawrence Bone, MD: The Berger Commission, a state entity charged with streamlining healthcare delivery throughout the state, recommended in late 2006 that ECMC and Kaleida Health merge. But it would have been difficult to merge a government entity like ECMC with a private organization like Kaleida. The outcome was the creation in 2008 of Great Lakes Health System, an umbrella organization that allows each organization to remain autonomous while working together on projects that can improve the delivery of care in the Buffalo area.
Q: What are some the things that Great Lakes Health can do?
LB: We can coordinate function like back-office services and consolidate clinical service lines. For example, each organization has a cardiac center of excellence and a transplant center, which are costly and there just are not enough patients in the Buffalo area to support two of each. If we had one center, it could do more.
Q: How do you plan to consolidate service lines?
LB: One of my colleagues on the committee said that instead of stealing each other’s patients, we need to create topflight programs that span both systems. For instance, the committee has recommended consolidating the highest-level services in cardiology at a new global vascular institute at Buffalo General, while allowing ECMC to continue to offering cardiac services.
ECMC, on the other hand, would host a new center focused on bone health, with the hope that it will attract specialists we don’t yet have in the area, such as an expert in metabolic bone disease. Elective spine surgeries, on the other hand, would be consolidated at Buffalo General. Kidney and pancreas transplant programs would be consolidated at ECMC.
Meanwhile, ECMC recently expanded its plans to build a new orthopedic and physical therapy suite from [an investment of] $2.6 million to $4.27 million. ECMC says orthopedic OR volume has increased by 35 percent over the past three years and is expected to grow by another 35 percent in the next three years, with the addition of several orthopedic surgeons to the staff.
Q: What are the next steps in getting these cooperative programs under way?
LB: The steering committee’s recommendations must be approved by the board of Great Lakes Health and by state regulators. The aim is to make the two organizations as close as they can be within the law. For example, we could eventually combine medical staffs.
The details will be worked out over the next few years. This is truly a historic time. We have an opportunity here to take two hospitals that were at odds with each other and combine them to improve service for everyone.
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