St. Joseph's, Emory break off partnership talks

St. Joseph's envisioned creating a joint operating company, which is a complicated arrangement under which the hospitals could retain their names and identities, while operating under the same business umbrella.

It was the second attempt this year by St. Joseph's to partner up. St. Joseph's and Piedmont Healthcare also tried to work out a joint venture this year, but announced in July that a deal could not be reached.

Amanda Rosseter, a spokeswoman for St. Joseph's, said the hospital will continue to work toward a partnership.

"We see this as being smart and proactive as a business, and preparing for numerous significant changes that are coming in health care," Rosseter said.

Rosseter said St. Joseph's is in a strong position financially and has one of the best quality records in the city, including being ranked among the nation's top 50 hospitals by HealthGrades, a private company that rates hospitals, doctors and nursing homes nationwide.

St. Joseph's, opened by the Sisters of Mercy in 1880, is Atlanta's only Catholic hospital. In addition to its hospital on Atlanta's northside, St. Joseph's also owns a small hospital near Lake Oconee and a network of charity care facilities around the city.

Emory Healthcare has built the state's largest health system, which includes multiple hospitals and physician groups, as well as specialty clinics.

The health care marketplace is less consolidated in Atlanta than in other large cities, experts said. But that is likely to change as insurance companies and provisions of the new health care law alter the ways doctors and hospitals are paid. Hospitals "are realizing it's probably easier to make it together than it is to make it alone," said Kevin Bloye, a spokesman for the Georgia Hospital Association.

For the providers, the consolidations will offer economies of scale, as they try to contain costs and embark on requirements for the future, such as the complicated transition to electronic medical records that is a major goal of the health care law. The consolidations also may make it easier for providers to respond to changes in the approach to paying for health care, where there is expected to be a new emphasis and reward system for delivering quality care and keeping patients well.

For consumers, the consolidations may result in fewer doctors and hospitals that operate independently. When a patient's doctor becomes part of a large health system, that patient might gain easier access to a larger pool of doctors and hospitals that specialize in the services they need.

Health care providers face "a great deal of uncertainty," said William S. Custer, a health care expert at Georgia State University. The partnerships sought by providers "are a way to become flexible enough to deal with all the possible futures they face."