Don’t expect to see Cleveland Clinic signs inside Community Health Systems hospitals anytime soon as a result of their recent hookup.
So said Dr. Delos “Toby” Cosgrove, the clinic’s president and CEO, during an appearance on Fox Business Network earlier this week.
“There will not be branding on these hospitals to start with, but we don’t know where this is going to go over time,” he said, according to a transcript provided by the network.
The clinic and CHS (NYSE: CYH), a hospital operator based in Brentwood, Tenn., announced a strategic alliance between them earlier this week.
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The not-for-profit clinic will share its clinical expertise with CHS’ network of 135 affiliated hospitals, including reviewing cardiovascular services for potential improvements. The hospital company, in turn, will share its operational knowledge.
The partnership is for an initial term of five years.
Below are excerpts from Cosgrove’s TV appearance, which is available here.
On whether the Cleveland Clinic will be branded in the Community Health System hospitals:
“There will not be branding on these hospitals to start with, but we don’t know where this is going to go over time. This is an infancy of a relationship. Which is going to be a long and successful one we’re sure. And we can’t begin to tell us where it is going to go, but we are starting with a determination to make this relationship work well.”
On what the Cleveland Clinic now has to offer with the new partnership:
“We are not putting the name of Cleveland Clinic on these hospitals. What we are doing is, we are working with them and they have good quality metrics right now and we’re hoping to continue to refine those metrics and to standardized as we go forward. And we are also hoping to develop care pass which will decrease the variation in healthcare treatments across this entire system.”
On whether the Cleveland Clinic is open for more partnerships:
“We are only going to do it with this for-profit organization. We are certainly open to do it with other non-profits.”
On the partnership between Cleveland Clinic and Community Health Systems:
“We are very excited about this. We think this is a great opportunity. As you know, everyone’s trying to produce better value for your health care dollar and we have two very different organizations coming together here – Cleveland Clinic is well known for its high quality and Community Health System is well known for its efficient management of hospitals. And we think the two of them bring more value to our ability to drive value for your health care dollar and we see great synergy between these two organizations. We are very enthusiastic about this opportunity.”