Dignity Health considers joint venture with San Francisco teaching hospital

San Francisco-based Dignity Health has begun negotiations with an academic medical center in the Bay Area, even as it proceeds with merger talks with Catholic Health Initiatives.

Dignity Chief Financial Officer Daniel Morissette said the system is pursuing a possible joint venture with an as-yet unnamed academic medical center because it would benefit Dignity’s four hospitals in the Bay Area by having a teaching hospital behind them.

Morissette cautioned that talks were very preliminary and confidentiality provisions in a nonbinding letter-of-intent prohibited him from naming the prospect.

Morissette said Dignity remains optimistic about its talks with CHI, a 103-hospital not-for-profit system based in Englewood, Colo.

A letter-of-intent to pursue an affiliation was signed in October.