PAWTUCKET – Aiming to bolster the quality of its programs, Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island has signed a clinical affiliation agreement with Brigham and Women’s Hospital, committing to at least five years of collaboration with the Boston institution.
The deal, announced Tuesday, does not involve a merger or corporate relationship, and it is not subject to state approval, Memorial officials said.
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“It’s not a business transaction in the sense of money being flowed through the entities,” said Francis R. Dietz, president and CEO of Memorial. “It’s strictly that we’re going to jointly work on recruiting physicians and developing clinical programs.”
Memorial has worked with Brigham and Women’s before. In the late 1990s, when many local hospitals were looking at possible mergers and buyouts, Dietz said, Memorial decided it wanted to stay independent but form a clinical affiliation, and the relationship started then.
Over time, the relationship faded, but in the last nine months, Dietz said, “we decided to revive it and ratchet it up.”
The affiliation allows for collaboration in any field, but it’s starting in two specific areas, Dietz said: emergency medicine and cardiology.
Memorial’s well-respected chief of emergency medicine, Dr. Liudvikas Jagminas, left four months ago to work at Yale-New Haven Medical Center, and Brigham and Women’s staff are going to help the hospital recruit a new emergency chief and also help streamline patient care.
In addition, Memorial is planning to build a new cardiac catheterization facility – an upgrade from its current one – and the Boston hospital will advise Memorial on that project and also provide access to top-notch specialists.
“There will be physician expertise in various arenas of cardiovascular medicine that we don’t have now and that would be very difficult for any community hospital to acquire,” said Dr. Andrew Artenstein, medical director of Memorial. “Brigham is so internationally renowned and has such a level of expertise that would be at our disposal for our patients.”
Through the affiliation, Artenstein said, Brigham doctors may come and treat patients at Memorial, and Memorial doctors may go to Boston.
“That would establish relationships between the doctors that would really allow for the ultimate in quality care for patients with complicated cardiovascular problems,” he said. “They’d know the doctors at both places, they’d have experience at both places … but most of the care would be provided at Memorial, because most care can be provided at the community level.” The most serious cases would go to Brigham, and because of the affiliation, it would be a “seamless transition” for patients.
“From a patient perspective,” Artenstein said, “this is really the best of all possible worlds.”
Dietz said he also expects the Brigham and Women’s connection to help Memorial in recruiting doctors, because the Boston hospital’s prestige will attract people “who would rather come to Memorial through that enterprise instead of doing it on their own.”
But what does Brigham stand to gain?
In a statement, Dr. Gary Gottlieb, president of the Boston hospital, said both institutions “share a common mission of providing outstanding patient care, leading innovative research initiatives and teaching the next generation of clinicians.”
On a practical level, Dietz said Brigham will also benefit from increased referrals.
“The need is there for tertiary care referrals,” Dietz said. “They want to associate themselves with what they consider a top-quality local hospital, so that when people decide that they need or want to go for open-heart surgery, we can refer them to Brigham & Women’s.”
Along with Memorial’s main campus, in Pawtucket, Brigham is also expected to be involved with Memorial’s facility in Plainville, Mass., which provides a variety of medical service, including primary care.
Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island, in Pawtucket, is a 294-bed community teaching hospital affiliated with the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. For more information, visit www.mhri.org.
Brigham and Women’s Hospital, in Boston, is a 777-bed teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School and a founding member of Partners HealthCare, an integrated health care delivery system. For more information, visit www.brighamandwomens.org.
