Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 13, 1995 TAG: 9507140017
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The hospital and clinic are physically joined on a common site on Virginia 419 in Salem, but are separately owned and operated.
"We want to work as closely with the clinic as possible," said William Downey of Newport News. It was announced Wednesday he will take over as president and chief executive officer of Lewis-Gale Hospital on Aug. 1. He also will manage Lewis-Gale Psychiatric Center.
Downey said he and Lyndell Brooks, who was named president and chief executive officer of Lewis-Gale Clinic on July 1, "will get along well."
The two met for the first time this week.
Even though they stopped short of talking of a merger or purchase, Downey and Brooks said they will be open to any type of discussions about how they can be linked.
The 378-bed hospital and the 144-bed psychiatric center, which employ more than 1,000, are owned by Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp., the nation's largest hospital system. The clinic, which operates at 15 locations and includes 140 physicians and 850 employees, is owned by its physicians.
Although the hospital and clinic often are viewed by the public as a single unit, cooperation between them to date has been minimal, Brooks said. The facilities are marketed together, and the clinic belongs to the Southwest Virginia Hospital Alliance along with Lewis-Gale Hospital. But "we're totally distinct," Brooks said.
"I'm sure Columbia and the clinic will look at what the future is, considering you've got two different people at the helm," Brooks said.
In addition to exploring new ways to link with the hospital, Lewis-Gale Clinic also has to decide its next step, Brooks said.
"Physically, we're reaching a plateau in the Roanoke Valley," he said. "We have to decide if we want to become a regional clinic by going farther into Southwest Virginia and into West Virginia."
Besides, the trend is to take health care out into communities rather than require patients to come to a central location, he said.
The clinic has sites in Fincastle, New Castle and Radford and has the opportunity to expand farther through mergers with physician groups into areas such as Bluefield and Low Moor that already refer patients to the clinic, Brooks said.
The company is working on an electronic medical record link for all cooperating doctors' offices, which should make expansion easier, Brooks said.
Brooks, who has a master's degree from West Virginia University, has been with the clinic since 1980. He had been executive vice president and chief operating officer since 1992. He replaces Darrell Whitt, who retired after 22 years. Whitt will remain a consultant for the clinic for a year.
Downey has a degree in public administration and political science from James Madison Unviersity and a master's in health administration from the Medical College of Virginia, He replaces Karl Miller, who headed Lewis-Gale for nearly nine years and who will move to a corporate consulting position with Columbia/HCA.
Downey comes from Riverside Regional Medical Center in Newport News, where he has been senior vice president since 1992. He has directed the operation of the 576-bed hospital that includes 100 beds for psychiatric patients. Prior to that, he was at two other facilities that were part of Riverside Health System, a private, not-for-profit company that is about the size of Carilion Health System of Roanoke. Carilion is Lewis-Gale's main competitor.
The challenges of the Roanoke Valley health care market, Downey said, include dealing with its movement into managed care and what impact that will have on the facilities. He said he was happy, however, "to be coming into an organization that was very well-run."
"My vision is to build on those things that have made it successful," he said.
Downey's family - wife, Carol, and three children, Elizabeth, 8, Robert, 4, and Anne Talbot, 2 - is expected to move to the valley by September.
by CNB