On Thursday, Oct. 1, a new era in health care begins when St. Mary’s Hospital formalizes its merger with MedStar Health. The merger will make SMH the ninth hospital in MedStar Health’s network and poises St. Mary’s’ largest private employer and non-profit to begin delivering an expanded level of healthcare in Southern Maryland.

Christine Wray

“The merger is a perfect fit for St. Mary’s Hospital,” said SMH President, Christine Wray. “We looked at our costs and the future of healthcare and the uncertain future of healthcare reform and decided that we should begin looking at a way to address the growing issues.”

MedStar Health and SMH had quite a bit in common prior to reaching an agreement; a commitment to excellence. In the region, only four hospitals achieved the prestigious 2009 Delmarva Foundation Excellence Award for Quality Improvement so far this year. With the merger, all four award winning hospitals, including SMH, are MedStar Health facilities.

According to MedStar President and CEO, Kenneth Samet, the two systems were already working closely with various MedStar facilities acting as tertiary medical providers to SMH patients for services not available locally.

Samet stated that the merger makes perfect sense for the people of St. Mary’s. The level of care provided will increase and when the hospitals work together in patient care, it will be a seamless effort for the doctors, diagnosticians and other caregivers and most important, the patient.

SMH also is ahead of the game when it comes to converting medical records from paper to electronic; something MedStar is in the process of undertaking as well. According to a recent New England Journal of Medicine survey of 63 percent of hospitals in the United States, only about 1.5 percent of the hospitals had a comprehensive electronic records system.

SMH is one of those few and MedStar has begun its efforts system-wide.

"We are excited to partner with MedStar Health," says Wray. "Our partnership highlights shared values, a community focus, as well as our joint commitment to the highest quality care. MedStar offers us world-renowned expertise and resources.”

One immediate benefit to SMH is the enormous buying power the partnership with MedStar brings. That power should help to lower the overall costs of healthcare for patients.

“St. Mary’s patient-first culture and service area are complementary to MedStar Health and will allow us to expand

Kenneth Samet

our long-standing partnership with St. Mary’s,” said Samet. “Together we will build upon St. Mary’s well-established programs with new resources and opportunities for collaborative clinical programming to accelerate growth, while expanding services and continuing to build on its commitment to quality.”

The merger between SMH and MedStar Health is certain to provide a combined system to benefit patient health and well-being, and contribute to the overall advancement of healthcare in the region.