Who: Tenet's Southern Californiia Network (Santa Barbara, Calif.) to enter into alliance with MedPartners (Birmingham, Ala.)
When: Alliance agreement announced April 9. Approval is expected in early May.
Total PR/Marketers: The allliance is not expected to impact either communications staffs at Tenet or MedPartners. So far, Tenet is leading the PR effort with two staffers working on the communications strategy.
Effect on PR/Marketing: The new alliance agreement will increase the number of MedPartners covered by the network to about 275,000 and Tenet will be able to boost physician relations in its Southern California territory.
Under the terms of the letter of intent, both organizations will share the financial risk of shifting 116,000 patients currently served by MedPartners in La Habra to Tenet's nearby Whittier Hospital Medical Center and Placentia Linda Community Hospital.
To meet the increased volume from the MedPartners members, Tenet will invest $15 million in capital improvements to upgrade medical facilities at Whittier Medical Center.
The alliance will allow the organizations to cooperatively develop quality initiatives and streamline services to become a more efficient force in the marketplace, says Lance Ignon, Tenet's director of media relations.
Generating Wall Street buy-in is key.
M&A Campaign: The key audiences for this cooperative agreement are hospital CEOs, hospital staffers and Wall Street, which is following this deal closely to determine whether the deal is really more efficient and effective from a patient quality standpoint.
The communications strategy focused on the shared financial risk of both organizations and how physicians--who are critical to the success of the alliance--will have a significant financial stake and high involvement in executive decisions. MedPartners is responsible for maintaining high physician awareness of key issues throughout the negotiation process.
Since Friendly Hills Regional Medical Center will shut down as a result of the alliance, MedPartners must handle the communications about community impact.
MedPartners is stressing that physicians will not be affected by the closure.
When the alliance is approved, MedPartners will take a more aggressive PR role with developing initiatives aimed at boosting its physician relations and conveying how the transition will benefit its members. (Tenet, Lance Ignon, 805/563-6975; MedPartners, Tom Dingledy, 205/733-8996)