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UNM’s Health Sciences Center has found a partner to work with managing a nonprofit health facility.
The HSC has agreed to a joint venture with LHP Hospital Group Inc., a Texas-based firm, to move forward with its proposal to operate Rehoboth McKinley Christian Health Care Services, a nonprofit 69-bed hospital in Gallup.
William Sparks, UNMH’s public information officer, said the HSC and LHP are now conducting further research on the hospital’s technical aspects after Rehoboth accepted their proposal to operate the facility earlier this month.
“The process first requires 60 days of due diligence by the hospital, by (LHP) and our hospital,” Sparks said. “All parties involved will look at all of the financial numbers and patient needs because those are all the facts that go into how and if we want to proceed.”
Sparks said the joint venture agreement requires the HSC and LHP to operate and fund Rehoboth together. However, he said that although the partnership will happen, the concerned parties are still negotiating the specific details of the agreement.
“This is in no way anywhere close to a decision at this stage,” he said. “How those relationships will be put together is something that will be put together in the next several months by all parties.”
Sparks said the HSC will use the due-diligence process to determine if the partnership will be beneficial. He said the final plan regarding the specific details of the partnership will still have to be approved by UNM’s Board of Regents.
“It will never proceed without regent approval,” he said. “If a partnership looks favorable, then a full process of presenting those facts to the regents and various governing boards would be preliminary before any kind of final agreement can be signed.”
The HSC and LHP have also yet to decide on an agreement for revenue and shared responsibility regarding Rehoboth, which would become a for-profit hospital, Sparks said.
“There will be revenue agreements,” he said. “Those specific questions on how it will be organized and those arrangements about the specific responsibilities, of all the parties, will be worked out within this time period to see again. Even then, whatever is decided will be voted on by the regents and their decision will be the final decision.”
Rehoboth spokeswoman Ina Burmeister said the hospital began searching for a partner in October because the hospital was having difficulty operating as an independent institution. Burmeister said the venture could provide financial support and technology to the hospital.
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“We are a small independent hospital,” she said. “And so with all the changes going on in health care and their challenges, we just felt it was becoming more and more difficult to just do it alone.”
If the regents approve the HSC’s proposal, Rehoboth will be owned and operated by the HSC and LHP, Burmeister said. She said the partnership will make health care more accessible in Gallup.
“Last fall, the board of trustees voted for an affiliation partner and our goal was to make sure health care services were available in Gallup and to strengthen the hospital,” she said. “It is our effort to make sure that we have good health care available in this community.”
