With Spectrum Health and Beaumont Health formalizing their merger last month, creating the new BHSH System, what will change? BHSH Lakeland President Loren Hamel tells WSJM News the move was made to ensure there are more resources available to all facilities and programs within what is now the 15th largest health system in the country. What will we see change locally?
“Immediately, not much,” Hamel said. “Healthcare, even in a virtual world, is mostly local, and so that doesn’t change. You still have a local connection to your doctor, to your hospital, to your emergency room. Those things don’t change.”
Hamel says the changes will be on the back end. We asked him what he would say to skeptics.
“You have a right to be skeptical. We’ve all experienced things that have come together, and they haven’t gotten better, they’ve gotten worse. I would say often times, the motivation to get bigger is to make money, and often that is what’s in first place. Certainly, in the for profit world, you would expect shareholder value is going to be a prime consideration. What brought us together was a commitment to create value.”
Hamel says things like office functions can be streamlined, leaving more resources for health services. He says the large organization will be better for patients, with 22 hospitals and 64,000 employees. He points to benefits Lakeland has seen throughout the pandemic just due to its affiliation with Spectrum.
