Schlegel: CU, Tenet contract offers stability

A two-year extension of Creighton University’s agreement with Tenet Healthcare provides stability and flexibility for Creighton’s hospital, the Rev. John Schlegel said Friday.

The announcement late this week that Tenet, a for-profit hospital corporation, would continue to own 74 percent of Creighton University Medical Center ended months of speculation that the university might find a new partner.

But Schlegel, president of Creighton, didn’t entirely reject the possibility that another partner might be found in the future.

“We’ll have a wandering eye, I suspect, for a little bit,” Schlegel said in an interview. The partnership agreement calls for automatic renewal every two years unless either party desires major changes.

“It’s a great tool for flexibility,” Schlegel said of the two-year agreement.

About 10 months ago, Schlegel said he planned to talk to other possible partners, such as Catholic Health Initiatives and Catholic Healthcare West. “It’s good for Tenet to know this,” Schlegel said at the time.

But Schlegel, Creighton administrators and Tenet officials presented the two-year agreement Friday as a positive development for both entities.

“We have a track record with Tenet,” Schlegel said. “They’ve been a good partner to this point in time.”

Gary Honts, the Tenet-employed chief executive of Creighton University Medical Center, said flexibility was important, given the way a federal health-care overhaul might change the marketplace.

“We’re excited about renewing the partnership and strengthening the partnership,” Honts said.

Schlegel agreed that it made sense to move ahead with a familiar partner during this time of potential health care changes.

American Medical International acquired Creighton’s hospital in the mid-1980s. American Medical was absorbed by National Medical Enterprises in 1995, and the company name eventually became Tenet. Tenet’s corporate headquarters are in Dallas.

Creighton University Medical Center has struggled to maintain its competitiveness in the metro area this decade.

Its inpatient volume declined about 11 percent from 2000 through 2008, according to Nebraska Hospital Association data.

Jeffery Flocken, a California-based Tenet administrator, said Friday that the Creighton hospital’s outpatient visits have increased 15 percent, however, over the past four years.

The hospital, the only one in Omaha east of 30th Street, provides a considerable amount of charity care for the poor. The more than 30-year-old facility’s appearance also has remained about the same while many metro area hospitals are fairly new or have undergone renovation.

The agreement calls for capital upgrades with money from both partners, the administrators said Friday. Improvements will be made to patient floors, operating rooms and other areas, they said. They didn’t say how much would be spent.

They also intend to increase the Creighton School of Medicine’s number of primary-care physicians by anywhere from 10 to 30 over the next few years, said Dr. Rowen Zetterman, dean of the medical school. Creighton Medical Associates, the clinical faculty of the med school, currently includes 207 physicians.

Administrators also said they will open the medical center to more community physicians who aren’t on the medical school faculty. Although they said this wasn’t forbidden in the past, it will occur far more in the future.

This will open the hospital to more expertise and should boost the number of patients who are referred to the hospital’s services, they said.

Contact the writer:

444-1123, rick.ruggles@owh.com