MANCHESTER, N.H. – Leaders from SolutionHealth, Southern New Hampshire Health and Elliot Health System gathered at the Carol M. Rines Center on the night of Wednesday April 23rd to take questions from community members regarding the proposed disaffiliation of Southern New Hampshire Health, Elliot Health System and Home Health and Hospice Care from SolutionHealth.
Formed in 2018, SolutionHealth is currently the parent company of Elliot and Southern New Hampshire Health, designed to help both pre-existing healthcare organizations join with other local providers in a new regional health system.
Over the past year, leaders within Elliot and Southern New Hampshire Health began to feel that their respective cultures and goals were too dissimilar to justify a continuation of the alliance in its current state, with Elliot seeking a broad alliance of partnerships with other providers to become a regional referral center and Southern New Hampshire looking to continue strengthening its long-time connection with Mass General Hospital (MGH) given its primary focus closer to the Massachusetts/New Hampshire border.
“I think Southern (New Hampshire Health) has really overtime has developed more of a singular relationship with MGH whereas perhaps Elliot has had what I call a more pluralistic number of academic tertiaries that they work with,” said Southern New Hampshire Health CEO Colin McHugh. “It’s a bit of a different strategy in each market.”
Elliot CEO Greg Baxter told the audience that he would view favorably any proposal that helps his organization pursue its mission of patient care, and believes that returning more independence to each organization would likely help that mission through more effective control over internal resources and more nimbleness to adapt to changes the organization faces. He added it was unclear what disassociation might do to patient costs, but noted that any short-term requirements would likely be offset by the advantage of long-term flexibility if disassociation moves forward
McHugh concurred, noting that the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the healthcare industry was also a major driver necessitating a change in how healthcare providers see themselves and function in this changed economic environment.
SolutionHealth CEO John Friberg said that he is uncertain what role SolutionHealth would play after the disaffiliation if it is approved, believing that it is likely that technical support for IT between the two organizations could be a role that SolutionHealth would still play. Friburg, McHugh and Baxter underlined that the decision to move forward with this process has been an amicable one.
“Eight years ago, (we were) building (SolutionHealth) de novo to support the missions of these legacy organizations to make sure they’re able to meet their mission and grow their mission,” said Friberg. “If these boards and organizations are saying that’s not working, and they can actually meet their missions more effectively and more successfully without SolutionHealth for collaboration, that’s what the boards need to understand and analyze, and if that bears out, there’s no need for that continued connectivity through SolutionHealth.”
Public comment was limited, as only three members of the audience provided any feedback. One of those people was Carol Furlong of Merrimack, a former patient and employee of both Elliot and Southern New Hampshire Health.
Furlong said she understood the decision given the different cultures within both organizations, the different cultures in Elliot’s primary territory in the Manchester area and Southern New Hampshire’s focus in the Nashua area, and the difference in how substance abuse has impacted both cities.
She believes that Baxter and McHugh did a good job and added that she sees this as an administrative change rather than a change in how care is given to patients.
“I understand that this change may be necessary. They did they best, but they weren’t as successful as they wanted to be,” she said. “We get excellent service at both hospitals and I don’t see that changing.”
A similar hearing in Nashua will be held at 6 p.m. on Thursday, April 24 at the Nashua High School South Auditorium. Anyone that was unable to attend Wednesday’s meeting or cannot go to Thursday’s meeting can provide viewpoints through info.solutionhealth.org.
If the process moves forward, which Friberg said could take weeks to months, the New Hampshire State Charitable Trust Unit would also hold public hearings at some time in the future.