Doctors' group joins with Triad.

Byline: Tim Christie The Register-Guard

The doctors of Oregon Medical Group, the second-largest medical practice in the metro area, have voted to join with Triad Hospitals Inc., the Texas-based parent corporation of McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center.

The partnership will help ensure that the community has two strong, competing hospitals, Dr. Mark Litchman, OMG's board president, said Thursday.

"It allows us to take advantage of Triad's strengths," he said, and OMG doctors will be "working more closely with them to help develop their present hospital as well as plan and develop their new hospital."

The deal also means McKenzie-Willamette will have its own large affiliated group of doctors, just as Sacred Heart Medical Center, owned by PeaceHealth, has PeaceHealth Medical Group, the area's largest practice with 110 physicians.

McKenzie-Willamette, founded as an independent community hospital in 1955, merged with Triad Hospitals Inc., the nation's third-largest for-profit hospital system, in 2003.

OMG, which was founded in 1988 and has 103 physicians, will keep its name and its 13 clinics in Eugene and Springfield. And its doctors will retain control over day-to-day operations and all patient care decisions, Litchman said.

"In many respects, for our patients this is going to be an invisible thing," he said.

OMG and Triad are forming a new corporation called Willamette Community Medical Clinic, but will do business as Oregon Medical Group, Litchman said.

The corporation will be governed by a board of directors composed of nine OMG physicians, elected by OMG's doctor-owners, and four lay persons representing Triad, he said. Litchman would not disclose the financial terms of the partnership.

He said OMG will be able to take advantage of Triad's financial power to start up new services, purchase equipment at favorable prices, provide its staff with more affordable benefits, and help out with expenses such as malpractice insurance and marketing.

The deal does not require OMG doctors to practice or admit patients exclusively at McKenzie-Willamette, he said.

Litchman said he talked with Mel Pyne, the CEO of PeaceHealth in Oregon, and assured him that OMG doctors will continue to have a strong presence at Sacred Heart.

OMG currently has 12 hospitalists - doctors who specialize in caring for hospitalized patients - who practice at Sacred Heart, and now plans to establish a similar program at McKenzie-Willamette, he said.

OMG also plans to expand its general surgery practice as well as its orthopedic service at McKenzie-Willamette, Litchman said.

Litchman said OMG is in "great shape" financially, increasing its volume of business 15 to 20 percent a year for the past five years.

McKenzie-Willamette spokeswoman Rosie Pryor said hospital officials are "very enthusiastic" about the opportunity to work more closely with OMG physicians and to get their help in developing clinical services at the existing hospital and planning the new hospital.

McKenzie-Willamette is preparing to build a new hospital on the back nine of RiverRidge Golf Course in north Eugene.