Two local health organizations are looking at teaming up to provide combined physical and mental health care to their patients.
Evergreen Health and Spectrum Health and Human Services serve 16,000 and 12,000 patients respectively, though a partnership would provide those patients access to services across both organizations.
Spectrum Health CEO and President Bruce Nisbet said that working together, the organizations have realized they share many complementing values.
“Our culture and values are very compatible with theirs. So in the end, that's what you need to have, as is the ingredient that makes any type of affiliation and joint effort together work. And so we're very excited about working with Evergreen. I think they are with us," Nisbet said.
The affiliation, if formed, would allow patients of either organization to have continuity of care with the opposite organization. The affiliation wouldn't change either organization's non-profit status, nor change how they operate.
Nisbet said that through working with Evergreen, they’ve realized they each provide a broad array of services that could complement each other.
"So when we looked at the continuum of services that we could provide for people in the community, depending on their needs, we just felt that it made a great deal of sense to look at the potential affiliating the two organizations so that we could operate really sort of under a single mantle," Nisbet said.
The organizations are looking to make a decision and finalize the partnership by the end of this calendar year.
