House, Senate leaders support health care merger
Proposal would see Lifespan, Care New England partner with Brown
PROVIDENCE — Leaders of the Rhode Island House and Senate on Tuesday voiced support for Lifespan and Care New England’s plan to move forward with a merger that will see the health care groups partner with Brown University in the development of an integrated academic health care system based in Rhode Island.
“We are excited that the long-anticipated merger of
Lifespan and Care New England, our two largest health care delivery systems, has advanced for public review by the Department of Health, the Health Services Council and the Attorney General’s office,” House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi and Senate President Dominick J. Ruggerio said in a joint statement issued about the hospital’s announced signing of a definitive merger agreement. “We have seen in other regions the tremendous advantages that stem from a strong academic health system as an anchor tenant in a capital city.”
“The legislature will be reviewing the details to ensure that patient care and the health care jobs are not adversely impacted by the merger,” Ruggiero and Shekarchi added.
The proposed merger is expected to be reviewed by the state Department of Health and Attorney General’s Office under a detailed process that include public hearings under state law.
The two hospital groups –
Lifespan with Rhode Island Hospital, Miriam Hospital, Newport, Bradley and Gateway Healthcare, and Care New England with Women & Infants, Kent Hospital and Butler – announced last September that their boards of directors had agreed to work on merging into a single entity in Rhode Island. It was a renewed effort to merge their sources after a number of unsuccessful attempts in past years.
The two hospital groups employ approximately 24,000 people at their various facilities.
Brown University announced on Tuesday that recently signed agreements by the health care groups and Brown and its Warren Alpert Medical School brought the vision of a nonprofit, integrated academic health system serving Rhode Island residents closer to reality.
“With co-investment from Lifespan, Care New England and Brown University, the new system will bring together the state’s premier teaching hospitals – Lifespan’s Rhode Island, Miriam, Hasbro, Newport and Bradley hospitals, and Care New England’s Women & Infants, Kent, and Butler hospitals – with Brown’s leading research and medical education from the Warren Alpert Medical School,” the University noted in its announcement.
The merger is expected to create an integrated academic health system with a full array of complementary
medical specialties required for excellence in health care and biomedical research, as well as offering leading edge of treatment and therapies, and the collaboration required for medical practitioners to effectively and efficiently provide health care to the community, according to the university.
Brown has a long record of working in partnership with local health care systems to create a system that will improve the quality of care for all patients across Rhode Island and the greater region, Brown President Christina H. Paxson noted.
“We’re committed to creating an integrated health system that increases access to excellent health care and, by doing so, reduces health disparities,” Paxson said. “Great health care should be accessible to everyone, including people from communities that historically have experienced obstacles to accessing health care. The seamless integration of research and clinical care drives improvements in the health of patients by offering all Rhode Islanders access to state-of-the-art medicine.”
Brown said it has committed to provide a minimum of $125 million over five years in support of the development of the integrated academic health system with Lifespan and Care New England. The University also noted it will participate on the governing board of the newly merged health system and play a key role in integrating medical education and research with clinical practice across the combined system’s hospitals.
The leaders of unions representing health care employees at Care New England and Lifespan’s facilities also chimed in on the merger news on Tuesday.
“Our membership, the frontline health care heroes who have showed up every day during the pandemic, have many questions about what the impact of the proposed merger will be on the vital services that we provide,” Patrick Quinn, Executive Vice President of SEIU 1199 NE, said of the development. “Any changes to the current health system, and the hospital system in particular, need to focus on improving health care delivery access to Rhode Islanders.”
“A transaction of this magnitude between the first- and third-largest private sector employer in the state would change the entire economy of Rhode Island,” Quinn added. “We need to proceed cautiously to ensure that sacrifices of frontline health care workers are honored and respected and that the eventual passing of the pandemic does not result in the amazing efforts of frontline caregivers being forgotten or diminished.”
“Everyone employed now needs to be offered the opportunity to continue working,” Quinn said. “The corporate leaders of the two largest hospital systems have the burden to demonstrate how all Rhode Islanders will benefit and how, in particular, we can do better by communities of color by improving access to high-quality health care, growing good jobs, improving health outcomes and being good neighbors.”
The United Nurses and Allied Professionals (UNAP) also pointed to the potential loss of jobs as a concern for the union.
“Any new entity that would combine two of Rhode Island’s largest health care providers and employers must be painstakingly scrutinized to ensure that it is in the best interest of patients and frontline health workers,” UNAP President Lynn Blais, RN, said of the merger update. “Our priority is the protection of critical, local services and jobs at our community hospitals.”
“We look forward to continuing a thoughtful and productive dialogue with Lifespan and Care New England about this process, and while we see the potential in this proposed new entity, we remain skeptical without the assurance of a formal agreement on services and jobs,” Blais said.
UNAP represents more than 7,200 nurses, technologists, therapists, pharmacists, mental health workers and support staff in Rhode Island, Vermont and Connecticut, including Rhode Island Hospital (Lifespan) and Kent Hospital (CNE), according to the union.
SEIU 1199 New England represents over 2,300 hospital workers at Butler, Women & Infants, and the VNA of Care New England as the largest union of hospital workers within the Care New England health system, according to the union. SEIU 1199 NE represents 29,000 health care workers in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Southeastern Massachusetts, including 4,000 health care workers in Rhode Island, the union noted.
BOSTON (AP) — A former Massachusetts high school head football coach has filed a federal lawsuit against three school administrators claiming that his termination was a violation of his First Amendment rights after he expressed concerns about the suitability of “coursework on politics, race, gender equality, and diversity” for seventh graders.
Former head coach David Flynn is seeking damages after Dedham administrators decided not to reappoint him as head coach in January, the
Patriot Ledger reported.
Administrators cited his “significant, repeatedly expressed philosophical differences” with the direction of the school district in the decision.
Administrators did not clarify what the differences were when asked by the publication and said that it was a personnel matter.
Sara Errickson, a spokesperson for Dedham Public Schools, said the district was aware of the lawsuit and had no comment Tuesday.
The lawsuit claims that
Flynn was exercising his First Amendment right to raise concerns over the curriculum for his seventh-grade daughter.
One of Flynn’s concerns was that a teacher used a digital cartoon of herself wearing a Black Lives Matter T-shirt. He said the material was not being taught objectively.
Flynn and his wife met with Dedham Public School Superintendent Michael Welch before ultimately removing their children from the school district in October.