By CAROL STUART
For Brentwood Home Page
An official strategic affiliation agreement between Williamson Medical Center and Vanderbilt University Medical Center signed Friday will allow WMC to stay independent and strengthen health care services for Williamson County residents, officials said.

And it also will make way for possible projects in Brentwood and Spring Hill, leaders of the two medical centers said in the announcement made at WMC’s hospital lobby in Franklin.

WMC and VUMC said the alliance “formalizes and broadens” collaborative arrangements already existing between the two institutions and will help expand but not replicate services.

“I didn’t support selling it,” said Jack Walton, a member of the WMC board of trustees and a Williamson County commissioner from the 8^th District. “I think there are some exciting things that are coming down the pike.

“They mentioned building some kind of center in Brentwood. Vanderbilt and Williamson Medical want to have a presence in Brentwood.”

Williamson Medical Center

Walton called VUMC and WMC “two of the biggest players around” in Middle Tennessee.

“They didn’t merge, they didn’t sell – it’s hard to define ‘alliance’ – but they agreed to work together on different projects,” he said.

Each jointly-operated program by the two will be entered into as a separate LLC business, according to WMC’s board chairman Russell Little and CEO Dennis Miller and VUMC’s Dr. C. Wright Pinson. And it doesn’t affect existing relationships between any independent medical providers, Vanderbilt providers or WMC staff at the hospital in Franklin, they said.

There are about 18 projects under consideration for the two medical centers during talks ongoing for the past few months, but no specifics will be released until they’re given the green light, said Pinson, VUMC deputy vice chancellor for health affairs.  A steering committee of three members from each board will decide on projects and take them back to their respective boards to approve.

Vanderbilt officials were also announcing similar alliances Friday with Maury Regional Hospital in Columbia and Northcrest Medical Center in Springfield. Those two are also independent and the only hospital in their respective Maury and Robertson counties.

Mayor: 'Brentwood needs more medical'

Brentwood Mayor Paul Webb and Brentwood Cool Springs Chamber executive director Cindi Parmenter were on hand for the announcement and welcomed the news.

“There’s a lot of energy here between Vanderbilt and the Williamson County medical center," Webb said. "You heard today from Mr. Miller, we’ve been talking, and I said Brentwood needs more medical – and you heard today both from Dr. Pinson and Mr. Miller that they’re coming.

“I think by making sure I attended today says, ‘Yes, we are listening to Brentwood and Brentwood is a huge market.’ We’ve talked for years about needing more of a medical presence from someone. Today this alliance points in that direction to me.”

Mayor Paul Webb

Brentwood has some doctors, dentists and optometrists in downtown Brentwood and Maryland Farms including the Brentwood Clinic, and NeighborMD just opened an urgent-care center near Harris-Teeter, the mayor said. Plus, there are several medical facilities in the Cool Springs area, Webb said.

Both the Cool Springs-area medical practitioners Webb sees are already Vanderbilt-affiliated but he opted for a recent procedure to be done by one of those VUMC physicians at Williamson Medical.

“At this point, I’m pretty much happy that they realize that they have more medical needs in Brentwood, so whatever they bring to us, we’ll be appreciative,” Webb said. “I just see positives today. This is a positive thing for Williamson Medical Center, but I think we’ve got a positive thing coming for Brentwood and medical care.”

Vanderbilt and Williamson Medical have operated as partners in the county for a while in collaborative efforts, and a number of Vanderbilt doctors perform surgeries at WMC. Pinson said Vanderbilt currently operates 20 outpatient clinics with 220 providers and 500 staff, in about 16 locations to see 350,000 patients a year in Williamson County.

 “I think it’s coming been for a long time,” Parmenter said.  “… Williamson Medical Center has really grown to a level in the past several years of absolutely cutting-edge of care for patients, the latest technology and the best doctors. And it’s a natural fit for them to align with Vanderbilt Medical Center, one of the very best research hospitals and specialty-care providers as well.”

Physician center would be convenient for Brentwood residents, workers

Little, Miller and Pinson all talked about the changing landscape in health care, including managed care, costs and federal and state regulations, and said such partnerships between regional providers and larger medical centers are becoming important.

 “We do not at this time have an affiliated network for the purposes of providing managed care,” Pinson said. But if the future and the possibility of ACO (Accountable Care Providers) dictates, the affiliations with WMC, Maury Regional and Northcrest would be valuable to provide cost-efficient and the best value along with the best health care, he said.

Parmenter noted that the joint agreement between WMC and VUMC mirrored a similar situation with the three Williamson County chambers of commerce unifying into one group.

“I think that speaks to the trend that’s happening in many different areas of business and medical services, because it just makes sense that we don’t duplicate efforts and we offer the best service to our clients or members by coming together and working on a more regional basis,” she said.

While WMC has an affiliation with Dr. Ross at the Brentwood Clinic, most of the services are focused on Cool Springs and Franklin, Parmenter said. She said she can see a need for more urgent care as well as a VUMC-WMC physicians’ center and possibility other services such as imaging.

She could see downtown Brentwood being a place for “a physician center where several different specialists could be housed and maybe they could share time in those offices between their time in another office,” Parmenter said. “So we would have the specialty services at the convenience of the Brentwood residents and during the daytime for those people who are working.”

Parmenter said 20,000 people come to Brentwood each day who don’t live in the city and that it would be nice to schedule an appointment during the work day close by.

“I would leave it up to the medical professionals to determine that, but I certainly any of those specialties and resources would be welcome,” she said.

Miller, Little and Pinson all said both WMC and VUMC are on strong footing financially. WMC also had been approached with several different opportunities in recent months and had gone over its options very carefully before the board decided to expand the alliance with Vanderbilt, the hospital leaders said.