Partnering with other health systems entails flexibility and alignment, Julie Freischlag, MD, CEO of Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist in Winston-Salem, N.C., told Becker's.
Dr. Freischlag is also executive vice president and chief academic officer of Charlotte, N.C.-based Advocate Health, which Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist joined in 2022 through the merger of Atrium Health and Advocate Aurora Health.
System leadership found an "unbelievable opportunity" to partner with Charlotte, N.C.-based Atrium Health in 2020, Dr. Freischlag said. The resources that partnership brought led to building a new critical care tower, emergency room and outpatient surgery center, as well as the Wake Forest University School of Medicine campus in Charlotte, which will open July 2025.
Wake Forest Baptist's affiliation with Advocate Health has led to additional growth. In entering these partnerships, Dr. Freischlag and her team considered opportunities to take care of more patients and the financial benefits of joining a larger system.
Both Atrium and Advocate were doing something intriguing that Wake Forest could learn from, Dr. Freischlag said.
"Atrium had an incredible hospital at home program they had developed even before COVID, where they had lots of patients at home getting care with wearables and having them being monitored by nurses at a central site. And we were able to adopt that, especially with our COVID patients," Dr. Freischlag said. "We were able to deliver one institutional review board across those systems so we can do research across the whole system, which is really helpful to get clinical trials started."
One way the systems achieved alignment was through creating a strategic plan focusing on innovation, education, academics and climate change. They are now working on a 2030 plan, which has been helpful in getting everyone on the same page and ensuring that they fit in Advocate, but also stay in their own culture and local system, Dr. Freischlag said.
In these transitions, having in-person connections was necessary to alignment, she said.
"The more times you can sit down and discuss your issues and problems, you find out that they're similar," she said. "The more times you can celebrate discoveries or opportunities, the better."
Making sure other voices are heard is another crucial aspect to these partnerships.
"You need to go in with an open mind. You need to be flexible, and you need to listen," Dr. Freischlag said. "Give people an opportunity to tell you where they come from, because most everyone comes to healthcare systems to do good, to take care of patients, teach the next generation and discover, so listening is really important."