Southwest Michigan’s ‘Lakeland Health’ is now part of the 15th largest health system in the nation. That’s the rather startling ‘factoid’ from longtime Lakeland Health leader Dr. Loren Hamel.
Hamel is now President of the BHSH Lakeland division of BHSH Health–the week-old combination of West Michigan’s Spectrum Health and Southeast Michigan’s Beaumont Health.
The two health systems together have morphed into Michigan’s largest employer, with 64,000 employees, including 12,000 physicians and 22 hospitals, spread from Lake Michigan to Lake Huron.
Hamel sat down for a conversation with MOTM Contributor Jonny Reinhardt, host of the 94.9 WSJM Morning Show and the ‘Got Something to Say’ podcast. Reinhardt wanted to know what impact the huge merger will have on health consumers here in Michigan’s Great Southwest.
Hamel said he envisions few changes in the short term, because most health care is essentially local.
“Healthcare, even in a virtual world, is mostly local, and so that doesn’t change. You still have a local connection to your doctor, to your hospital, to your emergency room. Those things don’t change.”
Hamel predicted that over time the Spectrum-Beaumont merger will have a positive impact on the availability and efficiency of health care in the region. He said almost inevitably cost savings will be identified in administration and ‘back room’ expenses that are duplicated over the far-flung health system and can be eliminated. He called that a “streamlining process.”
Hamel said it’s been proven over two years of experience with the COVID pandemic under the Spectrum-Lakeland model that local patients had better access to certain medical supplies, equipment and medication that they might have under a stand-alone Lakeland. He believes that will be true going forward with Spectrum-Beaumont in future challenging situations.
Hamel acknowledged that ‘bigger isn’t always better.’ However, he remined consumers that BHSH Health is NOT driven by a profit motive that’s present in private industry mergers.
“You have a right to be skeptical. We’ve all experienced things that have come together, and they haven’t gotten better, they’ve gotten worse. I would say often times, the motivation to get bigger is to make money, and often that is what’s in first place. Certainly, in the for profit world, you would expect shareholder value is going to be a prime consideration. What brought us together was a commitment to create value.”
Hamel suggested that as a non-profit entity BHSH Health will measure that ‘value’ in quality and efficiency of care, not bottom-line profit.
Listen to the entire interview with Hamel by clicking the link below:
