Swedish, Minor & James Medical Forge Closer Alliance
SEATTLE, Sept. 15, 2009 – Swedish Medical Center and Minor & James Medical – a large, multi-specialty physician group with clinics in Seattle and East King County – today announced an innovative partnership. Having collaborated for 50 years, the two organizations elected to formalize their working relationship.
Under a new agreement, Swedish will become a joint-equity partner in Minor & James Medical(MJM). Swedish will have two of the nine physician members on MJM’s governing board and the multi-specialty medical group will remain intact as a professional limited liability corporation.MJM physicians will retain control over all clinical operations within the practice.
“Our key goals are to enhance medical services in the community, reduce the cost of health care by sharing resources, and streamline processes,” said Cal Knight, Swedish’s president and chief operating officer. “All over the country, physicians and hospitals are working more closely together for the benefit of patients and the communities they serve.”
Patients will continue seeing their Minor & James Medical physicians with no disruption in service. With the new Swedish partnership, MJM will be able enhance and expand services over time for current and future patients.
“All 72 of Minor & James’ current physicians are excited about this new venture,” said John Clarke, MJM’s chief financial officer. “And we are actively recruiting additional highly qualified practitioners to join our clinic.”
Bryan Mueller, former chief operating officer of Radia – the largest radiology and vascular surgery practice in the Pacific Northwest – has been hired as MJM executive director. He will work closely with Clarke and Karen Parrish, who is chief operating officer at MJM. Primary areas of responsibility for Mueller are growth, clinical quality and productivity initiatives.
Swedish and MJM will work closely together to create long-term growth for the medical group. The plan is to gain operational efficiencies, as well as to expand Minor & James Medical to meet future specialty-care needs of the Greater Seattle community.
Teams have been formed to work through a number of important transitions over the next 90 days – including physician recruitment, marketing and business development, and cost analysis.
“Swedish values all its physician group relationships and is working to become more closely aligned with all the private-practice physicians on our medical staff,” said Knight. “This new relationship with Minor & James Medical is just one model for alignment and we are collaborating with individual physicians and large practice groups in many other ways as well.”
About Swedish
Swedish is the largest, most comprehensive nonprofit health provider in the Greater Seattle area. It is comprised of three hospital campuses – First Hill, Cherry Hill and Ballard – a freestanding emergency department and specialty center in Issaquah, Swedish Visiting Nurse Services, and the
Swedish Physician Division – a network of about 40 primary-care and specialty clinics throughout Seattle and East King County. In addition to general medical and surgical care, Swedish is known as a regional referral center, providing specialized treatment in areas such as cardiovascular care, cancer care, neuroscience, orthopedics, high-risk obstetrics, pediatrics, organ transplantation and clinical research. For more information, visit www.swedish.org.
About Minor & James Medical
Minor & James Medical (MJM) is a large, multi-specialty physician group with clinics located in Seattle, Mercer Island and Bellevue. MJM offers internal medicine and primary care as well as gastroenterology, orthopedics, cardiology, obstetrics and gynecology, hematology, neurology,
infectious disease, nephrology, endocrinology, otolaryngology, oncology, ophthalmology, pulmonary care, rheumatology, sport medicine, audiology, senior medicine, sleep medicine and podiatry. The clinics also offer onsite imaging and laboratory services. For more information, visit www.minorandjames.com
