February 26, 2010 in News, City

Sacred Heart boots Rockwood from hospital offices

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The Rockwood Clinic will have to vacate 48,000 square feet of offices, patient exam rooms and surgery suites on the Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center campus after failing to rework lease agreements.

The changes are the latest fallout from Rockwood’s surprise $50 million sale last year to Community Health Systems Inc. to form an integrated health care system with Deaconess Medical Center.

Rockwood, which had strong ties with Sacred Heart until the sale was announced, has drawn the ire of Sacred Heart administrators. While rhetoric may have softened, tough decisions continue to be made, such as insisting Rockwood vacate its premises by June 30.

The move affects five leases covering about 38,000 square feet in the Sacred Heart Doctors Building, including Rockwood’s ambulatory surgery center on the seventh floor. Another lease covers 10,000 square feet in the Providence Heart & Vascular Institute.

“Unfortunately, allowing physicians employed by CHS – our primary competitor – to occupy prime space on the Sacred Heart campus for years to come is not in the best interest of Providence,” wrote Sacred Heart administrators in an open letter to staff.

Rockwood is the region’s largest medical clinic, with 133 physicians and about 900 staff working at 32 clinics. With 160,000 patients each year and a wide variety of services, it is a key player in hospital admission numbers and economics.

Rockwood administrators have said they intend to refer 90 percent of their patients needing hospitalization to Deaconess within five years. The clinic has historically sent 90 percent of patients to Sacred Heart.

Rockwood physician and executive Dr. Craig Whiting said the decisions would not disrupt patient care. The clinic is considering a range of options, he said, declining to reveal where Rockwood might relocate.

Sharon Fairchild, vice president of communications for Sacred Heart, said canceling the leases will ensure that the hospital can accommodate other doctors’ practices and programs.

She noted that Sacred Heart wishes to maintain its long relationships with Rockwood doctors. They will retain medical privileges at the hospital and Sacred Heart will continue to provide time in its own ambulatory surgery center and operating rooms.

Rockwood had attempted to keep its leases – ranging from three to nine years – by seeking Sacred Heart’s consent to allow the clinic to assign its leases to Community Health Systems.

Sacred Heart officials pondered the request for two months before rejecting it.

Neither Whiting nor Fairchild disclosed the value of the leases.

Six comments on this story so far. Add yours!

• 

  zelda on February 26 at 8:22 p.m.

  What’s next? Community Health dumps INHS?

• 

  deacon46 on February 26 at 8:56 p.m.

  Zelda,
  Probably !!!!
  SH, CHS, INHS, and Rockwood are like Four children playing in one sand box. This only leads to fights and hissy fits.

• 

  zelda on February 26 at 9:43 p.m.

  I wish it were as harmless as a sandbox tiff. Right now this reads more like “The Valachi Papers.”

• 

  Diana on February 27 at 4:54 a.m.

  What does INHS have to do with SHMC vs Rockwood?

• 

  zelda on February 27 at 12:17 p.m.

  INHS is a shared service agreement originally struck between Providence and Empire Health Services, which was later bought by Community Health. There has been a nasty disagreement going on between Providence and Community Health about the cost and administration of the medical records contract and IT services. My guess is that Community Health wants to rid itself of INHS obligations eventually. Overall, I’d say that Community Health is busy untying any entanglements dating from the days of Empire Health Services.

• 

  elvicrazy on March 03 at 8:48 p.m.

  Shame on you, Sacred Heart! What it boils down to is retaliation that will only end up hurting the patients and employees of Rockwood Clinic. I’m a native Spokanite relocated to CA (due to job loss in WA), and I am truly disgusted with of this type of “what’s in it for me” behavior that the new CEO’s remarks and Sacred Heart’s actions reflect (yet still not forgetting to romance RC docs in the process). I guess the worker bees have always been disposable, and GOOD LUCK to the poor patients caught in the middle of this mess.

  There are hard-working people that you seem to overlook even at your own hospital (I know several of them, some even became patients at times), so what are a few more heads in order to get even and keep your profit afloat. One of those RC employees truly dedicates herself to the people that matters most…the patient! She continually bends over backwards to accommodate them, because she actually CARES and does so especially when others could give a crap. She has a true “Heart” of gold, and does not deserve what you big corporate execs are ready to dish out.

  I use to admire Sacred Heart at one time, but your hurting the wrong people on this one. So what’s a little collateral damage, anyway? It’s always about profit in the end, and may the biggest dog win. Truly compassionate, Sacred “Heart”.