|
Updated: 2:14 PM Jul 30, 2010
RMH Announces Affiliation with Sentara Healthcare
Harrisonburg, Va. RMH Healthcare of Harrisonburg and Sentara Healthcare, based in Norfolk, announced Thursday that the two organizations have agreed to affiliate.
Posted: 1:08 PM Jul 29, 2010 |
|
21 Comments 
RMH Healthcare of Harrisonburg and Sentara Healthcare, based in Norfolk, announced Thursday that the two organizations have agreed to affiliate.
The boards of directors of both organizations have signed a letter of intent that paves the way to move negotiations forward, according to RMH officials.
An affiliation between the two not-for-profit institutions will provide resources essential to continue offering access to high-quality, affordable health care services to the Harrisonburg- Rockingham County community and surrounding region, explained RMH President and CEO Jim Krauss.
“RMH and Sentara share a common vision of providing high-quality, community-based health care,” says Krauss. “We believe Sentara will provide significant benefits to RMH, including economies of scale, clinical innovations, quality improvement, and mitigation of future financial risk.”
David Bernd, CEO of Sentara Healthcare, adds, “Our two systems share a not-for-profit mission and a commitment to clinical excellence. We should fit together very well, and we look forward to working with RMH’s physicians, hospital staff, volunteers and community.”
According to RMH Board Chair Barbara B. Stoltzfus, the RMH board began seeking affiliation with another system in early 2010, based on a set of established criteria.
“The current economics of health care make it difficult for independent community hospitals like RMH to survive and thrive in the long term,” notes Stoltzfus. “The RMH Board recognized that to ensure the future of high-quality health care for our community, we would need to seek a larger health system with whom to affiliate. We also realized that the time to seek affiliation was when we were fortunate to be in a strong position.”
Stoltzfus noted that, in Virginia, about 95 percent of hospitals are part of health care systems.
She said that out of ten potential candidates the board considered, Sentara Healthcare emerged as the preferred choice and achieved the top tier ranking in almost all the criteria.
She explained that health systems and hospitals in the Valley and the region were also considered.
“We chose to affiliate with Sentara because it is, like RMH, a not-for-profit organization committed to delivering high-quality, community-based healthcare,” continues Stoltzfus. “In addition, a large, integrated system like Sentara offers services, technology and financial strength that we simply cannot achieve as an independent hospital in such a turbulent healthcare environment.”
Krauss adds, “Sentara respects the history and close community bond of RMH. This affiliation will ensure that quality healthcare will be a part of the Harrisonburg/Rockingham community for generations to come, as our original benefactor, William Leake, envisioned a century ago.”
Officials noted that it will take a six months or more to undergo a due diligence phase and complete regulatory review. The affiliation will most likely be in the first months of 2011.
More details will be released as work progresses, adds Stoltzfus. She emphasized that RMH will remain a community-based, community-focused hospital, with community members continuing to sit on the RMH board.
“Harrisonburg and Rockingham County are not losing RMH; we are gaining the resources and award-winning programs of Sentara Healthcare that will ensure high quality health care for our region for generations to come,” says Stoltzfus.
Latest Comments
To Just Hoping..on the wait in the ER. What "Emergency" where you having that you waited for hours? Please share? We would all love to hear that you waited for hours with a broken leg, or heart attack, or missing fingers. You are a major, major issue with Health Care and its costs. Stop using the emergency room as your primary care. Be a real person and deal with your abdominal pains, and headaches, and toothaches and go see a Doctor... don't go to the Emergency room unless you have an emergency... and by the way the RMH emergency room is one of the busiest in VA... and if you really want to fix the wait time tell Jim Krauss and his gang of misfits to stop firing nurses who can get the job done but may have opinions about proper medical care. Have the ER in the new hospital is closed!!!! Ask RMH about that.
Mark - point taken, I worked at Norfolk General and VA Beach General. Sentara is a fine organization but thinking this won't impact RMH staff! RMH has already frozen promotions promised to staff members. Take it from Jim Krauss,”Economies of Scale”; you think RMH is going to staff resources that are duplicated within the Sentara monolith, that would defeat the purpose. Take the 50 people employed within the I.T. department... think they are really going to need 50 people with Sentara engineers making 150k at headquarters. NO LAYOFFS of course not, Your Fired.. This is a right to work State. Point is Jim Krauss and the board, didn’t give one valid reason for this. They spouted off some good talking points and funny numbers… 95% of all hospitals are healthcare affiliated… Yeah because they started their own! And say goodbye to any independent healthcare providers… within five years Sentara will own every doctor that practices at RMH. Let’s check Jim Krauss salary in 2012.enough said
No employee of RMH needs to " watch their back ". I worked as a cardiac tech at Obici Hospital in Suffolk for 10 years. We went through a merger with Sentara as well. We lost nothing. Our pensions remained intact, our pay improved, our benefits improved and we received performance bonuses. During the economic downturn the first thing Sentara said was " we will not lay off a single employee " and they didnt. The Obici Foundation stayed intact and under local control. Some one posted about Chesapeake General " fighting Sentara off " what they dont say is they are part of city government and rely on Sentara for most serious cases and trauma. it is well known in the Hampton Roads area if you are in an accident or have a heart attack you want to go to Sentara. Bottom line if you work for RMH you will do just fine. Sentara will bend over backwards to make sure the transition is a smooth one. I am still vested in Sentara and once they are established I might get back into health care again!
