Recently the Boston Globe reported that healthcare giant Partners Healthcare had abandoned a three-year effort to acquire South Shore Hospital in Weymouth. The Globe called it “an unprecedented setback for an organization used to getting its way.”
If I ever needed to point to one fact as evidence that we are in the midst of change, what happened to Partners’ plan for expansion is perhaps about as good an example as I could ever hope to offer. You might want to review the article:
Last May when Martha Coakley first announced the deal that she had made with Partners, a friend of mine who is an experienced lawyer told me that there was no chance that a judge would ever block an agreement of this sort. He said that it was a “rubber stamp” process and implied that the deal was as good as done. So why did it not happen? Clearly there was well organized and effective opposition to Partners’ desire to expand. That fact alone is evidence of change.
It is interesting that initially most of the individuals and organizations that should have expressed their dismay and sense of violation about the acquisition were relatively quiet and it took days to weeks for them to recognize, one by one, that they could dare to express their concerns. Once they were talking they organized effectively. I think that it is not a stretch–given Partners’ size, influence and prior hardball business tactics strategically applied to get their way–that many who should have immediately expressed their outrage were fearful and only began to speak when they realized that their voices were going to be part of a choir singing a protest song.
It has become a reality that Partners’ reputation has been sullied. Their prior accomplishments, vast resources and effective public relations were inadequate to cover up the fact that at the end of the day it was hard for intelligent people to trust that their ambitions would really lead to a benefit for the community. The facts, their response to the pushback and their prior history were enough to support the logical conclusion that it was a “now or never” time for action for those who wanted a fairer medical market in Massachusetts.
What is happening in Massachusetts is happening all across the land. After years of talk, whether everyone believes it yet or not, the economics of waste in healthcare can no longer be ignored. Everyone has suddenly realized that healthcare takes too much of the pie. Change is inevitable and what we have experienced is increasingly unsustainable and intolerable.
I believe that we will find the better way. We have tools that can help. We have many reasons to be motivated. I hope that Partners’ new head, Dr. Torchiana, finds a way to lead Partners and all of us to a lower total cost of care. There is no question that even though Partners did not get what they want, they do have the ability to make things happen.
