BOCA RATON, FL –
March 8, 2018 – Officials at Boca Raton Regional Hospital (BRRH) today announced
that it has established a list of five healthcare providers as potential
partners in its quest to elevate and accelerate its position as the preeminent
academic tertiary referral center in the region. Culled from a group of
twelve health systems that responded to the Hospital’s Request for
Proposal, the providers selected include: Baptist Health South Florida,
Cleveland Clinic, Memorial Healthcare System, Novant Health and Orlando Health.
“This group represents some of the most accomplished and respected
healthcare systems in the country,” said Jerry Fedele, President
and CEO at Boca Raton Regional Hospital. “We believe it is an affirmation
of our capabilities and strengths as well as our attractiveness as a potential
partner.”
Fedele emphasized that BRRH entered into the process of seeking a partner
from a position of strength and noted the significant increase in hospital
utilization, programmatic and facility expansion, strong financial performance
and record-setting levels of philanthropic support in recent years as
key drivers behind the success of Boca Raton Regional Hospital.
In June of 2017, Boca Raton Regional Hospital established a steering committee
that included hospital board members, community and medical staff leaders
and volunteers to explore the possibility of a strategic partnership with
another provider. In announcing the formation of that committee, BRRH
stated that such a partnership would enhance the Hospital’s ability
to develop nationally recognized clinical programs to better serve its
patients, mitigate the challenges of a stand-alone organization in a complex
and evolving healthcare industry and provide greater access to capital.
Since that time, Boca Raton Regional Hospital has embarked on a series
of communication initiatives to explain the rationale behind the initiative
to its key constituencies including medical staff, employees, volunteers,
philanthropists, community members and governmental and civic leaders.
“Our goal through this process is to maintain the highest level
of transparency for our stakeholders,” commented Christine E. Lynn,
BRRH Board Chair. “We’ve done that in a material way and created
a dialogue that has fostered a solid understanding of the impetus for
this initiative.”
Over the course of the past seven months, the steering committee, working
in conjunction with an outside consulting firm specializing in these matters,
sought proposals from potential suitors and then evaluated them on a number
of criteria deemed critically important to the Hospital and the communities
it serves.
“This has been a deliberate and thoughtful process, as it should
be,” said Dick Schmidt, former BRRH Board Chair, noted civic leader
and philanthropist, and Chair of the partnership steering committee. “We
have come to recognize that our Hospital is highly regarded by the best
names in healthcare today. We stand on the cusp of creating a relationship
that can secure our future for the benefit of our community.”
Mrs. Lynn noted that “a process has been developed to conduct detailed
discussions with the finalists over the next few months in order to select
the best partner for Boca Raton Regional Hospital that will secure our
Hospital’s future of exceptional service to our community.”
It is currently anticipated that the preferred partner will be identified
by this summer.
About Boca Raton Regional Hospital – Advancing the boundaries of medicine.
Boca Raton Regional Hospital is an advanced, tertiary medical center (BRRH.com)
with 400 beds and more than 800 primary and specialty physicians on staff.
The Hospital is a recognized leader in oncology, cardiovascular disease
and surgery, minimally invasive surgery, orthopedics, women’s health,
emergency medicine and the neurosciences, all of which offer state-of-the-art
diagnostic and imaging capabilities. The Hospital is a designated Comprehensive
Stroke Center by the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA).