Scott & White, Baylor Health to merge

The $7.7 billion venture will create largest nonprofit health care organization in Texas.

Temple-based Scott & White Healthcare has agreed to merge with Dallas-based Baylor Health Care Systems to create the largest nonprofit health care organization in Texas and one of the largest in the country.

The driving forces behind the merger — which will create a single $7.7 billion organization — are pooling resources to better serve patients and “create a model system for an industry undergoing fundamental transformation,” officials said.

The new system is to be called Baylor Scott & White Health.

Scott & White, founded in Temple in 1897, has a national reputation for quality care and efficiency. Its system includes 12 hospitals in Central Texas, with one each in Round Rock and Taylor in Williamson County. It has another hospital under construction in Marble Falls.

Scott & White operates 178 clinics in the area and has a staff of more than 14,000, including 1,000 employed physicians and scientists and more than 300 “advanced practice providers.”

It also offers insurance coverage through its Scott & White Health Plan.

Baylor is a larger organization, with 30 affiliated hospitals and $4 billion in total operating revenue.

Dr. Robert Pryor, president and CEO of Scott & White, said one of the primary objec- tives of the merger is to focus more on community health “rather than taking care of sick people.”

“The aim is to provide highquality, low-cost health care where people get extraordinary outcomes,” Pryor told the American-Statesman Friday. “We are trying to work with the community to keep the community healthy rather