CHI Franciscan Health and Virginia Mason Health System, two leading health care providers in the Pacific Northwest, today announced they have signed a letter of intent to create a clinical partnership and strategic affiliation designed to expand access and improve care quality and safety across the Puget Sound region.
The alliance will result in a comprehensive regional health network offering more services in more places across the Puget Sound area and along the I-5 corridor. The agreement also enables Tacoma-based CHI Franciscan to establish its second formal relationship in Seattle while allowing Seattle-based Virginia Mason to further its presence in the south Puget Sound area.
CHI Franciscan and Virginia Mason will remain separate organizations as they work together. CHI Franciscan will remain a faith-based health system, and Virginia Mason will remain a non-religious health system. The breadth of patient care services provided by both organizations will not change in any way as a result of this alliance.
“This unprecedented collaboration will permit both organizations to utilize their strengths and share best practices to enhance quality and access to care, operate more efficiently and work together to offer pioneering advances in medicine,” said Ketul J. Patel, CHI Franciscan Health CEO. “We are proud to be joining forces with Virginia Mason, one of the nation’s top health care systems, to complete a Puget Sound-wide network by collaborating to offer enhanced services in the Seattle and Tacoma Metro area.”
“Our organization is committed to making health care better, safer, more accessible and more affordable for everyone,” said Virginia Mason Chairman and CEO Gary S. Kaplan. “Our teams are eager to work with CHI Franciscan to develop new models of care that can ultimately improve the patient experience across the region.”
Representatives of both organizations will spend the next several months evaluating opportunities that Virginia Mason and CHI Franciscan are uniquely positioned to address through collaboration. Virginia Mason has collaborated with CHI Franciscan for many years to provide radiation oncology services at the CHI Franciscan hospital in Federal Way. Virginia Mason also has a large medical facility in Federal Way, offering an array of outpatient medical and surgical services.
– CHI Franciscan Health
