Minneapolis-based University of Minnesota and Fairview Health Services, also in Minneapolis, intend to ink a short-term partnership agreement this summer to better align both institutions' research and clinical care initiatives, according to the Twin Cities Pioneer Press.
The organizations' five-year M Health agreement will auto-renew in June 2018 unless either party opts out by June 1, 2017. Officials said they hope to negotiate a better deal, one including better financial targets, funds to update facilities, more clinical trials and staff training sites and simpler contracts for FHS, according to the article.
FHS has been an affiliate of the university since it sold the hospital in 1997. The organizations' relationship became more finite with the creation of the 2013 M Health agreement, which officials reportedly believed to be the precursor to a definitive merger agreement. However, negotiations between the two institutions regarding the merger issue broke down last summer, according to the article.