Officials talk hospital's partnership with UNC
By Steve Herring
Published in News on April 29, 2016 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/ALAN CAMPBELL
Shirley Harkey, right, Wayne Memorial Hospital vice president and interim chief operating officer, speaks Thursday during the Wayne County Chamber of Commerce Health Care Hot Topic at Wayne Memorial Hospital. Also pictured are Leslie E. Burnside, left, UNC Health Care vice president of network affiliations and network development, and Robert A. Enders Jr., Wayne Memorial Hospital interim president and CEO.
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A new temporary Wayne UNC Health Care logo sign stands at the visitors entrance to Wayne Memorial Hospital on Friday. A permanent sign will be installed later.
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News-Argus/ALAN CAMPBELL
Ray McDonald Jr., a member of the Wayne Memorial Hospital board of directors, speaks Thursday during the Wayne County Chamber of Commerce Health Care Hot Topic at Wayne Memorial Hospital.
The partnership between Wayne Memorial Hospital and UNC Health Care was the focus of Thursday morning's Health Care Hot Topic program, but when it came time for questions, the focus was health care in general.
Sponsored by the Wayne County Chamber of Commerce, and held in the hospital auditorium, it also provided hospital officials an opportunity to reiterate that the hospital had not been sold, but has simply entered a managed services agreement with UNC Health Care.
The only question about the partnership from the audience of 59 attendees came from Becky Craig, the hospital's vice president of finance.
"Are the employees still Wayne Memorial Hospital employees?" she said. "Or are we now UNC Wayne?"
"The big question is, 'Was the hospital sold,'" said interim hospital president Bob Enders. "Hopefully with today's presentation we keep trying to dispel that rumor. Of course, the hospital has not been sold. The corporate structure of Wayne Health (Corp., the hospital's parent corporation) is intact, and the employees who work here continue to be employees of Wayne Health."
There are a couple of "selected people" who are employed by UNC Health Care including the president, he said.
The hospital signed the agreement with UNC Health Care, the state-owned not-for-profit integrated health care system based in Chapel Hill, on Dec. 30, 2015. The financial aspects of the agreement are proprietary and will not be made public, Enders said in an earlier interview.
In that same interview Enders said UNC will be able to help the hospital with information technology; supplement its dealing with insurance companies and managed care; expand locally available hospital and community-based patient care services to enhance patient care; enhance operational efficiency; and provide access to cutting-edge research and treatments at UNC Health Care.
Shirley Harkey, Wayne Memorial Hospital vice president and interim chief operating officer, said that the association is not new -- the hospital has enjoyed a partnership with UNC Heart and Vascular since 2012.
When hospital president Bill Paugh announced last April that he would retire at the end of 2015, the hospital board realized it had a "daunting task" and not only needed to replace a CEO, but needed to start thinking about the future of health care in the county, she said.
"It was looking at the direction of the hospital and the direction of health care in Wayne County," Mrs. Harkey said. "As you recall, since we have had a new president in office, over the last seven or eight years we have had a lot of changes in health care. We had the advent of the Affordable Care Act, and that stared a domino affect for a lot of other changes and how health care was reimbursed. How health care was structured. How hospitals and physicians responded to these changes.
"Many of you living here in the fall of 2013 and winter of 2014 remember the struggles we had negotiating our Blue Cross and Blue Shield contract. That was painful not only for the citizens of this community, but for the hospital as well."
Those were among the things the board had to contend with as it was recognizing the need for a partner, she said.
With the unveiling last week of the new hospital sign and logo, the question has been raised again as to whether the hospital's name had changed, Enders said.
"We have not changed our name," he said. "We are still Wayne Health and Wayne Memorial Hospital."
The new sign has Wayne with UNC Health Care below it in smaller lettering. Next to Wayne is a depiction of the Old Well on the campus of UNC at Chapel Hill.
The design is similar to ones used by other hospitals affiliated with UNC Health Care.
Enders was asked about the sign following the meeting.
"We looked at probably eight variations of the logo, and I think basically it was a gut reaction," he said. "Everybody looked at it. The board looked at it. We took a straw poll, and that is the one that spoke to all of us the most. When you try to start to fit Wayne and Hospital and UNC with the well in there, everything gets kind of small and hard to read.
"We think that Wayne was emphasized so they know it is still part of Wayne County. I think for that reason most of the hospitals in the system have chosen that. It has not been sold. It is a management services agreement. The emphasis on the logo is Wayne, and maybe to look at it philosophically, the UNC Health Care is under it to provide a foundation and support."
Wayne Health Corp. board member Ray McDonald Jr. said he wanted to respond to an earlier question about how to prevent hospital systems from closing in small rural areas.
"The answer is you find partners and relationships that help you leverage what you already have, and carry it beyond, and get ready for the next round of health which we all know has moved to population health," McDonald said. "So in the past we have been paid to perform a service. In the future we will get paid to maintain health and keep people healthy.
"One thing that was very impressive to the (hospital) board is that when Wayne Memorial Hospital decided that it was going to look at different alternatives, we did so from a position of strength. This hospital was in very good financial shape. The care was good. The physicians, the community, the health care community were in a very strong position. So when we went out and started looking, we had people coming to us, and we had a lot of choices."
The board ended up making the choice that best fit what it was looking for -- a managed services agreement, he said.
"We didn't want to sell the hospital," he said. "We wanted to find somebody who knew what we were trying to do and had an organization already in place that we could plug into. That is why we ended up with UNC.
"That is the whole purpose of the meeting today is why did we partner? We looked into the future. Now is the time to do it. A lot of hospitals in this state, and other states, have gone begging to UNC and some of the other organizations saying, 'Please take us. We are losing money. We have got to have you to help us keep our doors open.'"
Wayne Memorial was not in that position, he said.
"Therefore we were able to make the choice that best fit us," McDonald said. "That has nothing to do with the board. That is the administration of the hospital. They put us in a very good position."