The former CEO of Community Health Systems' eight Fort Wayne, Ind., hospitals is helping create Indiana University Health's new primary care practice in the area.
The primary care office, slated to open in the first quarter of 2018, will be staffed initially by 15 doctors with potential to expand. Former local physicians and othr leaders, including the ousted Lutheran Health Network CEO Brian Bauer, are helping build out the office, according to an IU Health spokesman.
The practice will be led Dr. Geoffrey Randolph, a surgeon who left his position as chief medical officer of the CHS-owned Lutheran Hospital in June.
IU Health, which is Indiana's largest academic medical system, said it is expanding into Fort Wayne to respond to a growing need for primary care and to attract and retain physicians in the area.
The academic system has plans to expand its presence in Fort Wayne through more outpatient locations and other healthcare investments over time, according to an announcement released Friday.
In a statement, a Lutheran Health Network spokesman said, "We have a longstanding history with IU Health on a number of initiatives and we expect that to continue."
Bauer was fired by Franklin, Tenn.-based CHS in the wake of a failed physician bid to find a buyer for the eight hospitals. CHS in May rejected a $2.4 billion offer from a buyout group that disgruntled physicians in Fort Wayne had brought forward to buy the profitable CHS division.
More than 100 physicians supported the buyout effort, but CHS' board of directors said it was at least $1 billion too low.
The group of disgruntled physicians claimed that CHS, the nation's second-largest investor-owned system with 139 hospitals, neglected Lutheran's capital and staffing needs for years and had lost the trust of physicians in Fort Wayne.
CHS in May announced a $500 million investment over several years to upgrade the Lutheran Health Network's hospital facilities, enhance patient care and increase access to its health services.
