By By BETTY MITCHELL GRAY
Staff Writer
The clock is ticking on potential merger partners for Beaufort Regional Health System.
On Wednesday, HealthCare Appraisers Inc., the Florida-based consultants guiding the local hospital’s search for suitors issued a 1-1/2-inch thick document, called a request for proposal, to 14 potential partners, Pam Shadle, director of marketing and public relations for BRHS, announced Friday in an e-mail to area news media.
Under the terms stated in the document, those who receive the RFP have 45 days from its date of issue to respond to it.
The list of possible partners includes some health-care providers that had not previously expressed an interest in receiving the RFP.
Scheduled to receive the proposal are Greenville-based University Health Systems of Eastern Carolina; Health Management Associates of Naples, Fla.; Capella Healthcare of Franklin, Tenn.; Universal Health Services Inc., of King of Prussia, Pa.; Sunlink Health Systems Inc., of Atlanta, Ga.; Ameris Health Systems of Nashville, Tenn.; LHP Hospital Group of Plano, Texas; Jackson Hospital Affiliates of Alpharetta, Ga.; Progressive Acute Care, LLC, of Mandeville, La.; Nueterra Healthcare of Leawood, Kan., and Brinn Healthcare, Community Health Systems Inc., LifePoint Hospitals Inc., and RegionalCare Hospital Partners of Brentwood, Tenn.
At a recent BRHS board meeting, its members were told to expect only a few responses to the RFP.
The RFP has been characterized by some members of the BRHS Board of Commissioners as the opening move in a series of discussions with potential partners that could lead to its merger with one of them.
The RFP asks for two proposals. The first asks prospective partners to respond to a BRHS request for a 20-year lease that would begin “on or about” Dec. 1, 2010. The second asks potential partners “to be creative. If you see an alternative way to accomplish our objectives in lieu of the preferred leasing structure, we invite you to propose your best ideas without restrictions.”
The RFP includes data on the BRHS operations, a list of requirements for prospective partners and about five pages of questions to determine how the prospective partner would address the needs of the local health system.
The RFP identifies more than $21.1 million in construction needs, an amount slightly higher than listed in a draft version of the proposal.
In addition to future construction needs, the RFP asks any suitor to meet nine basic requirements. Those include providing quality care to all people in the community, regardless of their ability to pay; staying current with advancing medical technology, seeking to aggressively improve BRHS’s market share and providing a good work environment for health-system employees.
The RFP states that “an important consideration” in evaluating responses from potential partners will be their “commitment to understand and effectively address these matters.”