A deal announced last March that would have created a strategic partnership between New Orleans-based Ochsner Health System and General Health System, which owns Baton Rouge General Medical Center, is officially dead.
A written statement issued jointly by the institutions today says, “Baton Rouge General and Ochsner Health System have jointly decided not to continue our partnership discussions. Both organizations remain financially and operationally strong and are committed to improving the health of the patients and communities we serve. We remain open to continuing to explore other opportunities to provide value for our patients.”
The statement is attributed to Warner Thomas, president and CEO of Ochsner Health System, and Edgardo Tenreiro, acting CEO of Baton Rouge General Medical Center. It does not disclose the reason the deal—touted last spring as “the next step in transforming health care in Baton Rouge”—fell apart.
But sources told Daily Report in October that after the abrupt resignation in August of Baton Rouge General CEO Mark Slyter, talks broke down. Sources say Slyter was the driving force behind the partnership and that even before his departure there was a lot of concern about how the two distinct corporate cultures of the institutions would mesh.
At the time, officials with Baton Rouge General insisted talks were ongoing and attributed the delay in finalizing the deal to the August flood.
Health care analyst Nathan Kaufman, whose San Diego-based Kaufman and Associates has consulted several hospitals in the local market, says the deal would have been good for the institutions and bucks the national trend.
“Across the country we’re seeing hospitals consolidate and the creation of health systems,” he says. “Baton Rouge is over-bedded for its size, so strategically it made sense for them to combine their resources.”
The partnership between the two institutions would have created a network with more than 30 local clinics, five acute care and specialty hospitals and 5,000 employees.
—Stephanie Riegel
