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Medical Associates Practice Joins Transylvania Community Hospital
BREVARD, N.C., Dec. 20, 2007—Medical Associates of Transylvania—the oldest operating medical practice in Brevard—has joined with Transylvania Community Hospital in a partnership to provide better access to primary care in the region.
The transfer in ownership took effect on Dec. 10, with all six current physicians and their staffs becoming employees of the not-for-profit hospital. The newly named Medical Associates of Transylvania Community Hospital will operate as a provider-based clinic at its current location at 377 Gallimore Road in Brevard. Patients should notice very few changes in the practice.
“This strategic partnership between the Medical Associates physicians and the hospital is a benefit for the community and a strength for our local healthcare system,” said Bob Bednarek, president and CEO of Transylvania Community Hospital. “Anyone familiar with healthcare today knows the business of running a medical practice has become extremely complex with all the insurance and government requirements. This partnership creates a strong local healthcare system where the doctors can focus on patient care and the hospital can offer expert management of the business side of medicine. In the end, patients in our community will benefit with more timely access to medical care.”
Medical Associates was established in 1957 as the Newland Clinic by Dr. Charles Newland, who also helped found Transylvania Community Hospital.
The physicians at Medical Associates have been in discussion with hospital officials for several months about combining resources, Bednarek said. Besides the promise of a more efficient system, the partnership can help retain and attract primary care physicians to the area despite national shortages.
“Doctors don’t go to medical school to learn to run a business, they go to take care of patients,” said Dr. Shane Foster, who has been with Medical Associates for 10 years. “With all the overhead and complexities of the medical business today, many physicians would find it attractive to leave the business side of the practice to another organization like a hospital.”
Dr. James Shaw, another physician at Medical Associates, says the partnership has many advantages. “In my 26 years of practicing medicine, more and more of my time each year has been taken up with things other than seeing and taking care of patients,” Shaw said. “This integration with the hospital will allow me to devote all of my time to patient care and have the reassurance that the business is being managed professionally.”
Another advantage of the partnership is that the hospital will be able to bring more cutting-edge technology to the primary-care doctor’s office. “A great benefit of the integration with the hospital is that a doctor’s office will not be dependent on its limited resources for things like medical equipment and electronic medical records, which benefit patients,” Shaw said. “Now we will have the full backing of the hospital and the benefits of economies of scale for purchasing new equipment, physician retention and recruiting new physicians to the area.”
In the end, patients will benefit. “The bottom line is that this partnership will improve patient access to medical care and improve access to modern technologies currently available at the hospital including electronic medical records,” Foster said.
About Transylvania Community Hospital
Transylvania Community Hospital is a nationally ranked 5-Star Hospital and a leading provider of quality healthcare services in Transylvania and surrounding counties. Based in Brevard, N.C., it is a not-for-profit community hospital founded in 1933 and is the largest employer in Transylvania County.