SIH-HMC merger: Good for everybody, both CEOs say

The CEOs of Southern Illinois Healthcare and the Harrisburg Medical Center say the merger of the two facilities will happen gradually over the next two years and that when it is complete, Harrisburg area patients will less frequently have to leave town for important medical care.

SIH CEO Rex Budde and HMC CEO Donald Hutson were guests at Thursday's Saline Chamber of Commerce virtual meeting. They said they believe the merger will greatly benefit patients in southeastern Illinois, as well as provide HMC employees with greater opportunities for pay and advancement within the system.

Hutson said the economies of scale, what with shrinking reimbursements for medical care and the reluctance of physicians to work in a small market, were working against the 70-bed Harrisburg hospital and caused them to start looking for a "strategic alignment" with another health care provider. SIH became an obvious choice, he added.

"The choice came down for us, did we want to survive or thrive?" Hutson said. "We opted to thrive."

Hutson said thriving means adding specialty and sub-specialty services right in Harrisburg, so patients would no longer have to drive out of town for primary and even secondary medical services.

Partnering with SIH also will mean more competitive pay for the HMC staff, and improved access to wider career paths and training opportunities, he added.

"What made perfect sense was to look to the organization that has been the most heavily vested in health care in southern Illinois, which is SIH," Hutson said.

Hutson and Budde both discounted a rumor that SIH would turn Harrisburg Medical Center strictly into a mental health facility. HMC is known for its specialty in mental health services, and currently devotes 30 of its 70 beds to inpatient mental health care.

While SIH is happy to be inheriting an active mental health component with the merger, Budde said there is no plan to turn HMC into a psych hospital. He said his three main goals for HMC are to improve care in neuroscience (strokes), cardiac care and pulmonology care.

"Our goal is to raise the standard of care at this hospital," Budde said. "It's the right thing to do. Our goal is to keep people at home."

Moreover, Budde said SIH looked at the most recent 1,000 patient admissions at Memorial Hospital in Carbondale from Saline County. By raising the standard of care at HMC, "300 of them could easily have stayed at Harrisburg Medical Center," he said. He added that every day Memorial Hospital turns away 10-15 patients, and raising HMC's standard of care could erase that margin.

"(HMC) is an excellent facility with great people and great leadership," Budde said. "We want to enhance that."

Hutson said the plan is also to expand cancer services with a larger infusion area.

Budde said they won't go as far as to add radiation services at Harrisburg, since the cost would be prohibitive. SIH's Cancer Institute in Carterville will continue to be the go-to place for radiation.

The CEOs said HMC's transition to becoming a full member of SIH will take close to two years.

"We will approach it methodically as we incorporate HMC employees as full SIH employees," Hutson said. Over time, he said, employee pay will become consistent with the SIH pay scale.

Budde added that SIH will be embarking on a $130 million expansion project over the next seven years that will include the Harrisburg facility.