GraniteOne Health, a partnership of hospitals which includes Monadnock Community Hospital, is exploring a new partnership with Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health.

GraniteOne and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health have signed a letter of intent for a plan to move toward a combination of the two organizations. Monadnock Community Hospital is one of three hospitals under the umbrella of GraniteOne, which also includes Catholic Medical Center and Huggins Hospital.

“This is the beginning of a process to determine how we could combine our systems, and work together to ensure that our patients and the people of New Hampshire have access to the highest quality of care close to home,” MCH wrote in a document sent to employees.

If the collaboration goes through, the combination would be known as Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health GraniteOne. While the collaboration would have its own board of trustees, each member hospital would keep its own trustee board which would continue to make decisions at the local level, and each hospital keeps its own name and brand.

“What we can do together is so much more than what we can do separately,” GraniteOne CEO Joseph Pepe said in a phone interview with the Valley News last week.

“To channel Beyonce … it’s time to put a ring on it,” Dartmouth-Hitchcock CEO Joanne Conroy told Valley News in the same phone call.

Layoffs are not expected, according to MCH, but the hospital will be able to lower costs through better coordination of care and more efficient use of resources.

There are not yet a lot of specifics about what this partnership will mean for MCH yet. Over the next 5-6 months, GraniteOne Health and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health will work through a definitive agreement about how to collaborate.

“During that time we will be looking at how best to partner our talents, technology and resources through this innovative collaboration that is uniquely New Hampshire,” MCH CEO Cynthia McGuire said in a statement to the Ledger-Transcript.

Monadnock Community Hospital already partners with Dartmouth-Hitchcock in some aspects, including cancer care with the Norris Cotton Cancer Center, and has membership with the New England Alliance for Health, which helps its members gets better rates for things like employee health benefits.  

 

Ashley Saari can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on Twitter @AshleySaariMLT.