New England Baptist Hospital (NEBH) and Tufts New England Medical Center (Tufts-NEMC) announced in September 2006 a planned partnership to build a new 190-bed hospital in the Boston suburbs. NEBH, however, has recently postponed the partnership in order to discuss suburban expansion with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC).
Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Needham, a direct affiliate of BIDMC and a member of the bond-holding company CareGroup, along with BIDMC and NEBH, currently has 41 beds and room to expand, so it hopes to help meet NEBH's need for operating rooms.
Because of this fit, the two hospitals have signed an agreement to talk for six months about renovating the existing Needham building to benefit both.
"The Needham opportunity would allow us to be in the market sooner and at a lower capital cost," NEBH Chief Executive Joseph D. Dionisio told the Globe. "Given those factors, we felt compelled to explore the feasibility of a collaboration at Needham."
Although NEBH had already announced plans to build a new hospital from the ground up with Tufts-NEMC, Dionisio said the project was proving to be more costly than expected, according to the Globe.
Brooke Tyson Hynes, vice president of public affairs at Tufts-NEMC, said that NEBH's decision to end the partnership did not come as a complete surprise. "They let us know when the opportunity presented itself, and [Chief Executive of Tufts-NEMC] Ellen Zane agreed that they should look into a fiscally responsible position to take, to look into an option within their CareGroup family," she told the Daily.
According to Jerry Berger, a spokesperson for BIDMC, the center's chief executive Paul Levy is now involved in discussions with NEBH, Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Needham and Harvard Medical School faculty physicians at BIDMC. All parties involved are part of CareGroup.
"We are working with New England Baptist to see if there's a way of better utilizing space that exists in the Needham facility," Berger said.
Tyson Hynes said that NEBH's decision to postpone the partnership has not influenced Tufts-NEMC's plans for suburban expansion.
"Ellen Zane [said] that having the Baptist Hospital was always a cherry on top for the expansion," Tyson Hynes said. "We'd love to have them as a partner, but this is a plan that we want to do as a hospital and we will continue to move forward with those plans."
Tyson Hynes said that their plans have not been delayed. "We have had a great response from the marketplace on our plans to create a suburban campus," she said.
She said that Tufts-NEMC has narrowed their options for locations down to yet-to-be-announced three sites.
"We've sent a request for [a] proposal to different developers around the area," she said. "We'll be learning about those areas over the next few months to make a decision on the right one."
Tyson Hynes said that Tufts-NEMC is open to the possibility of a new partnership, but that their main objective is to continue with plans to build the new hospital. "If we have an additional partner that's great, but otherwise we are set to continue with our plan," she said.
Jeffrey Glassroth, vice dean for academic and clinical affairs at the Tufts University School of Medicine, said that the end in the deal between Tufts- NEMC and NEBH, both of which are Tufts teaching hospitals, does not affect the students at the medical school.
"It is really too early to tell if Tufts University School of Medicine students will have any role in the new NEBH facility, but it is certainly possible," he told the Daily in an e-mail. "All the Boston medical schools have a history of working together within various hospitals, and this could be another such arrangement."
Still, a new Tufts facility would be advantageous to the medical school because of the resources it would offer.
"We do hope that Tufts-NEMC will pursue a new facility and it is clear that it is Tufts-NEMC's intention to do so," he said.
