The CHI Franciscan and Virginia Mason health systems united in January to form Virginia Mason Franciscan Health. The joint operating company has a market concentrated in the Seattle-Tacoma area and in south central Washington. It is a subsidiary of Chicago-based CommonSpirit Health.
Kaplan
The new system encompasses 11 hospitals — all but one of which were from CHI Franciscan — and nearly 300 sites of care, including primary and specialty care clinics, same-day surgery centers, and Benaroya Research Institute and Virginia Mason Institute, two medical research centers in Seattle, according to a press release from CommonSpirit Health. The new system employs more than 18,000 team members and staff and has nearly 1,500 hospital beds.
Virginia Mason Franciscan Health is a Catholic health system. Virginia Mason facilities will remain non-Catholic. The legacy organizations, CHI Franciscan and Virginia Mason, have an equal number of seats on the board of the new system. Marvin O'Quinn, president and chief operating officer of CommonSpirit Health, is one of the board members.
Patel
Virginia Mason Franciscan Health will focus on expanding patient access points and developing innovative models of care delivery that enhance quality and the patient experience, the press release said.
CHI Franciscan and Virginia Mason had created several partnerships in recent years including a birth center and women's health clinic in Seattle and oncology programs at St. Anne Hospital in Burien, Washington, and St. Francis Hospital in Federal Way, Washington.
Dr. Gary S. Kaplan, the former chairman and chief executive of Virginia Mason, and Ketul J. Patel, who is president of the Pacific Northwest Division of CommonSpirit and was the chief executive of CHI Franciscan, share the chief executive post at Virginia Mason Franciscan Health.