CHARLESTON, W.Va. — CAMC President & CEO Dave Ramsey says CAMC and Mon Health System have “similar cultures” and joining together to form the new Vandalia Health System is the logical next step.
“It’s just sort of a natural thing that came about over years of collaboration and working together on the quality of patient care across our state,” Ramsey said during an appearance Friday on MetroNews “Talkline.”
Vandalia Health was unveiled in a Thursday news release from both hospital systems. They plan to file for a certificate of need from the state Health Care Authority on April 15.
Ramsey said the “similar cultures” include a focus on patients, communities, employees and physicians.
“We’re very optimistic we’ll be able to combine the best practices of Mon Health and the best practices of CAMC, bring them together, and improve both the cost and quality of health care delivered to our patients,” Ramsey said.
Mon Health President & CEO David Goldberg said during Friday’s “Talkline” that patients may not notice a lot of difference at first.
“Our local brands are going to stay in place in the markets and we think it’s important. Over time, including the Vandalia umbrella, which is what we all become, we’ll be included in, but we don’t want to confuse the patients. They know our facilities, they know our doctors and that’s not going to change,” Goldberg said.
Earlier Friday during an appearance on WAJR’s “Talk of the Town” Goldberg said the partnership will be focused on expanding the scope and scale of care while managing costs. After the merger, the new company will employ more than 12,000 people.
“A true merger, no one is buying each other were merging both organizations together- it’s called a member substitution,” Goldberg said. “We’re excited it’ll be a new board, I’ll be an executive vice president with Vandalia as well as president and CEO of Mon Health.”
Mon Health and CAMC will merger together and create a single health care system reaching all corners of the state. David Goldberg, Mon Health President and CEO, and Dave Ramsey, CAMC President and CEO, discuss this announcement to @HoppyKercheval. WATCH: https://t.co/yCFQ3nDJuy pic.twitter.com/q6G0LOz7Yn
— MetroNews (@WVMetroNews) April 1, 2022
One change will be the addition of the parent company name, Vandalia Health. Facilities throughout each healthcare system will retain their identities. The new entity will have a board made up of five people from Mon Health and 10 members from CAMC.
“Vandalia will be the parent name, but we’ll still be Mon Preston, Mon Stonewall, Mon Health Medical Center, etcetera,” Goldberg said. “And our market, same as CAMC is so strong, as it should be in the southern part of the state they don’t lose their name.”
Officials at WVU Medicine, which operates the largest health care system in West Virginia, watched Thursday’s announcement with interest.
WVU Medicine reaction
WVU Medicine President & CEO Albert Wright called the make-up of the new Vandalia board “eye-opening.”
“Mon Health is joining the parent company of CAMC and CAMC will control the majority of that board from information we’ve seen,” Wright said. “It will be interesting to see how that develops over time, if there are service additions here (in Morgantown) or service reductions,” Wright said.
Wright said WVU Medicine would continue to monitor the new agreement.
“I assume as leaders of non-profit health care organizations that they’re doing what makes the most sense for them, their organizations, to meet their missions,” he said. “We’ll keep watching it. It will be interesting to see.”
Competition
During Friday’s “Talkline” appearance, CAMC’s Ramsey was asked if the decision to form Vandalia Health was a response to WVU Medicine taking control of a significant number of small hospitals across the state in recent years. Ramsey said there’s always going to be competition.
“In our industry we compete by providing outstanding patient care and we think our two organizations are stellar in that regard and will continue to be,” Ramsey said. “The whole composition thing is there, you can’t ignore it, but we wouldn’t be doing this if we didn’t think it’s the right thing.”
WAJR Radio reporter Mike Nolting contributed to this story.