UW Health and Meriter-UnityPoint Health in Madison, Wis., have signed a joint operating agreement for obstetrics and neonatal services, building upon their existing, informal partnership in women's health.
Physicians from UW Health and Meriter already practice together at Meriter clinics, the Meriter Birthing Center and neonatal intensive-care unit, the Meriter Center for Perinatal Care and UW's Generations Fertility Care. But the new, formal agreement declares that Meriter and UW will operate “mother-baby services” as a single entity.
Each organization will maintain ownership of its current assets, but a new 10-member board will oversee the jointly operated service line's quality and performance, budgeting, strategic plans, policies and protocols. The agreement went into effect at the beginning of the year.
Meriter's birthing center is the busiest in the state, according to a release, and the system also has a Level 3 neonatal intensive-care unit. UW Health opened a 14-bed Level 4 NICU in May, but babies are not delivered at UW Hospital or its American Family Children's Hospital.
The partnership will help avoid duplication of services in the Madison area, said Jeff Poltawsky, senior vice president of American Family Children's Hospital, in a statement. “This will allow us to achieve a future vision for coordinated care of women and infants,” he said.
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