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Methodist-Proctor union completed

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Peoria now has two fine hospital companies, and they will be handling area health care needs on three hospital campuses.

Proctor Hospital is now part of UnityPoint Health and will be called UnityPoint Proctor, affiliated with UnityPoint Methodist, after approval for the merger came from the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board.

The merger of the two, which was first announced just a few months ago, was previously approved by the boards of directors of Methodist Health Services Corp. and Proctor Health Care Inc.

"This is a great day for Proctor, for Methodist and for our community," said Debbie Simon, president and CEO of the new entity known as UnityPoint Health Methodist/Proctor, during a news conference Thursday at Hult Center for Healthy Living on the Proctor Hospital campus, which was attended by 100 or so people.

"Now we will developed a unified health system that will optimize the resources of both organizations. This new vision for health care in our community will provide greater value, coordination, quality and access for Peoria and the region," said Simon, who has been president and CEO of UnityPoint Methodist.

Paul Macek, president and CEO of Proctor, agreed. He said he believes the services will thrive under the new arrangement and will strengthen the region. The unity of the two will "create the best health system in downstate Illinois. Not the biggest, the best," Macek said during the news conference.

Those sentiments were echoed by Dr. Peter Johnsen, chairman of the Methodist board, and Dennis Triggs, chairman of Proctor's board. The latter board had its last official meeting on Oct. 29, which Triggs said was a somber occasion.

Triggs praised the professionalism and ethics of Macek and the Proctor staff for working diligently to make the affiliation happen despite the uncertainty it lends to their own futures. "The integrity and commitment of these people and of Debbie Simon and the folks at Methodist cannot be overstated," Triggs said. "We now need to collectively maximize the opportunity to truly make central Illinois the place people come for quality health care."

The new affiliation was welcomed by Iowa-based UnityPoint, said Bill Leaver, that organization's president and CEO. It also, he added, represents the kind of change that will become necessary in health care delivery in the United States.

"Health care has to change going forward and UnityPoint is focused on bringing resources together and focusing on coordinated care. That will become critical in the future," Leaver said.

A team using people from both Methodist and Proctor has started work on integrating the services and resources, including making a determination on any staff or personnel changes in the future, Simon said. That process will be far lengthier than getting the merger approved, she added; it could take two or three years before it is completed.

UnityPoint Health Methodist/Proctor, also referred to as UnityPoint Health-Peoria, will be governed by a 16-member board of directors, including three brought aboard from the Proctor board.

Under UnityPoint Health-Peoria, there will be 562 licensed hospital bed and 188 affiliation-employed physicans and advanced practice providers.

Between the two over the last year there were 19,194 surgeries performed, 2,360 births, 76,673 emergency visits, 22,209 admissions and 159,591 outpatient visits.

UnityPoint Health-Peoria will encompass not only the two hospitals but also the UnityPoint Clinic Physican Network, Proctor First Care and Proctor Medical Group, UnityPoint at Home-Peoria, the Illinois Institute for Addiction Recovery at Proctor, the Hult Center for Healthy Living and Methodist College.

West Des Moines-based UnityPoint Health now owns 31 hospital, more than 280 physician clnics and nearly 3,300 licensed beds throughout Illinois and Iowa.

About the Author
Paul Gordon is the editor of The Peorian after spending 29 years of indentured servitude at the Peoria Journal Star. He’s an award-winning writer, raconteur and song-and-dance man. He also went to a high school whose team name is the Alices (that’s Vincennes Lincoln High School in Indiana; you can look it up).