Wyoming Medical Center in Casper has engaged in talks with smaller hospitals around the state about possible affiliations to lower costs and improve care, according to the Casper Star Tribune.
WMC officials were careful to stress the entity is seeking new arrangements through affiliations instead of mergers. Such arrangements would enable the state to ramp up its healthcare services while helping to address the increasing cost burden hospitals have acquired by providing care to patients who can't pay, according to the report.
WMC has yet to establish an affiliation agreement with any of the hospitals, but officials have outlined what a possible affiliation would look like. For example, ideas include lending other hospitals nursing staff during temporary shortages and aligning treatment protocols to enhance the seamlessness of care.
If the hospital finds a partner, the affiliation program would mostly be limited to central Wyoming, from where patients and their families often travel four to six hours to obtain specialized care outside of the state.
An affiliation would help Wyoming hospitals remain viable in a period in which hospitals in other states — particularly Salt Lake City-based University of Utah Health Care — are approaching WMC to affiliate, according to the report.
"If you get picked off by the bigger systems right now, places like Wyoming Medical Center, Cheyenne Regional Medical Center, if we lose some of that referral base, we can't provide the level of care we do," said Wyoming Medical Center CEO Vickie Diamond. "So we can't provide the trauma care. We can't provide heart care if we lose some of those referrals."