Oklahoma has its first built-in educational well being system with OU college observe, hospitals merger
After many years aside, the College of Oklahoma School of Medication college observe has merged with OU Medication’s father or mother firm College Hospitals Authority and Belief (UHAT) to kind the state’s first built-in educational well being system.
With the conclusion of a proper signing ceremony held Tuesday, the unified entity generally known as OU Well being stated it now seems to amplify medical analysis, improve its capability to teach new healthcare professionals and enhance the standard of look after sufferers.
“The healthiest states have one factor in widespread: a tutorial well being system that brings collectively affected person care, analysis and the coaching of tomorrow’s well being care leaders,” Joseph Harroz Jr., president of the College of Oklahoma, stated in a press release. “Earlier than as we speak, we had every of these items, and whereas they labored collectively, they operated individually with totally different administration buildings. Now, this merger unlocks limitless potential as we deliver collectively research-driven care and training that can make Oklahomans more healthy, result in financial prosperity and transfer our state ahead.”
The college observe, OU Well being Physicians, was the most important doctor group within the state of Oklahoma previous to the merger.
RELATED: Pandemic exposes educational well being techniques’ want to have the ability to quickly scale, UPMC and Hopkins docs say
OU Medication and its hospitals had been owned by HCA Healthcare and collectively managed with UHAT from 1998 to 2018. UHAT and the College of Oklahoma fashioned OU Medication as a nonprofit in 2017 and with it reacquired the hospitals for $750 million.
The official plans to merge the hospitals and the observe had been introduced by the teams in March.
G. Rainey Williams Jr., board chair of UHAT, stated on the time that the hospitals started working to deepen their relationship with the college shortly after the big-ticket buy.
“OU and UHAT share a typical dedication for the brand new OU Well being to be a top-tier educational well being care system marked by high-quality affected person care, world-class coaching and revolutionary analysis,” he stated in a press release. “Merging the hospitals and clinics right into a unified well being system permits us to speed up the achievement of those missions.”
With the merger, OU Well being Physicians will likely be creating a brand new clinic observe inside OU Well being and forming a single governing board comprised of OU officers, UHAT board members and different group leaders, the group stated.
RELATED: Hospitals, firms personal almost half of medical practices, spurred by COVID-19 disruption: report
On its web site, the educational well being system additionally outlined a few of the operational advantages it can get pleasure from due to the merger and reorganization.
It stated {that a} singular scientific technique will permit the system to “extra strategically” spend money on analysis and training efforts that profit the entity as a complete, whereas sufferers will profit from extra interdisciplinary care and new group healthcare methods.
OU Well being additionally highlighted an organizationwide digital well being report overhaul slated for 2022 in addition to a brand new gross sales tax exemption that can fund a further 70 medical resident positions, 110 nursing graduates per 12 months and 50 nurse practitioners per 12 months.
Extra broadly, the system stated it hopes the formation of a tutorial medical system will assist tackle Oklahoma’s scientific workforce scarcity. In response to OU Well being, the state ranks forty sixth in physicians per capita and has 40% fewer registered nurses per capita than the nationwide common.
“Oklahomans will profit from the newest in research-driven developments and elevated entry to well being care, and the following technology of OU-trained physicians will carry our custom of excellence into the long run,” John Zubialde, M.D., govt dean of the College of Oklahoma School of Medication, stated in a press release.
