KINGSPORT – Wellmont Health System is about halfway through its strategic options analysis, a process that has yielded positive comments about the organization’s clinical quality and low cost structure.
Wellmont CEO Denny DeNarvaez
Earlier this year, Wellmont issued a request for proposals from organizations that might want to align in some fashion with the health system. Nine health systems submitted a proposal, but three of them are no longer being considered because they did not meet the guiding principles the board of directors has established for this review.
Due to confidentiality agreements, names of interested parties cannot be disclosed.
Buddy Scott, the board’s chairman, said Kaufman Hall & Associates, a highly respected national healthcare consulting firm, will guide the board and Wellmont’s administration through the evaluation of each submission and further narrow the field.
“The board has taken the correct approach by evaluating our future as an organization while we are in a position of clinical strength and relative financial stability,” Scott said. “We expect several more months of research and discussion are needed before our board will determine final recommendations this fall. This takes considerable time and effort given the substance of these proposals and the importance of the task.”
If the board chooses to align with an organization, the present timeline estimates a formal agreement might be reached as early as December.
Scott and Denny DeNarvaez, Wellmont’s president and CEO, have provided additional context about the alignment options in a letter accompanying the health system’s fiscal 2013 report to the communities it serves. The letter and the report, which spotlights Wellmont’s community benefit and work to further elevate care, is available at www.wellmont.org/ForwardWithVision.
