By Thea Jarvis

Trustees of Northside Hospital and St. Joseph’s Health System recently authorized creation of a network to develop joint venture opportunities for St. Joseph’s and Northside hospitals in Atlanta.

The new organization, tentatively named the North Georgia Regional Healthcare Network, will have equal representation from Northside and St. Joseph’s Health System.

The network is not a merger of the two institutions located at Peachtree-Dunwoody and Johnson Ferry Roads, hospital spokesperson explained, since both facilities will continue to maintain separate identities.

William T. Foley, president and chief executive officer of St. Joseph’s Health System, which includes St. Joseph’s Hospital in Atlanta, said cooperative ventures are key in the current healthcare environment. The move is a “necessary approach” to enhancing patient access to healthcare services in a cost-efficient manner, he said.

No specific joint ventures have yet been planned, Foley indicated, but he expects the network to consider consolidation of some overlapping clinical and support services. He also foresees cooperation on new program development.

St. Joseph’s and Northside have worked together informally on educational and employee benefits programs in the past. The two hospitals share a director of medical education and a physician from Northside currently sits on St. Joseph'’ ethics committee. This year, Northside participated in an ethics symposium sponsored by St. Joseph’s.

Hospital officials expect few problems to arise from linkage between a Catholic institution and a secular one. Regional networks are becoming more common in health care delivery and affiliations between Catholic and secular facilities are not unusual in other parts of the country.

One established joint venture pairs Mercy Health Services and the Henry Ford Health System in Michigan, a network that has affected a large number of hospitals in the Detroit area.

Foley said physicians already view St. Joseph’s and Northside as a single medical center because so many doctors practice at both facilities. St. Joseph’s, which specializes in cardiac care, and Northside, whose major service is obstetrics, easily complement each other in most areas, he said, though there is duplication in cancer treatment, orthopedics and general surgery.

Sister Jane Gerety, RSM, senior vice-president for sponsorship for St. Joseph’s Health System, said joint ventures between the two hospitals would be “selective.” The network would not consider mutual undertakings in obstetrics and gynecology, for example, “because our positions are different,” Sister Gerety said.

Northside Hospital performs first trimester abortions based on the best clinical judgment of the attending physician, Northside spokesperson Karen Carlisle said.

In 1991, 166 abortions were performed at the hospital, according to statistics of Georgia Department of Human Resources.

Sister Gerety emphasized that “We are concerned that we preserve our unique identity” within the network structure. She added that Sisters of Mercy are particularly interested in “universal access” of health care for patients.

Sister Gerety, whose job involves oversight of the hospital’s workings for her community, said she believes “networking and cooperation are absolutely necessary” to insure accessible, affordable health care.