Southcoast Health System, Part A

Southcoast Health System consists of three hospitals in southeastern Massachusetts: St. Luke's in New Bedford, Charlton Memorial in Fall River, and Tobey in Wareham, as well as numerous affiliated entities. But how did the merger that created the Southcoast system came about? "Basically, we merged because we wanted to, not because we needed to," said John Day, President and CEO of Southcoast Health System (formerly the CEO of St. Luke's Hospital). "We wanted to avoid a divide and conquer situation. As community hospitals, we needed to be able to serve the long-term interests of our communities." "We decided it was ridiculous to be competing with each other," added Ron Goodspeed, MD, President of Southcoast Hospitals Group and Executive Vice President of Southcoast Health System (formerly the CEO of Charlton Memorial). A mix of events and environmental conditions set the stage for the three hospitals to consider merging. One of the most critical of these was a turnover in Charlton's CEO position. Meanwhile, the health care environment was becoming increasingly volatile and competitive, and the focus in the business community was shifting away from city-specific planning and toward developing the larger southeastern area of the state. The predominant goal of the management and boards at all three hospitals was to find a way to best serve the interests of their communities. They decided on a full asset merger: building a single executive management team and board of trustees to oversee the organization.

• Mergers and acquisitions
• Healthcare and treatment