Creighton University Medical Center’s renewed partnership agreement with Tenet Healthcare will bring many changes including better faculty recruitment and a larger capital investment.
The new agreement, made Oct. 29, will automatically renew every two years unless material changes are requested. The contract expands primary care networks, allows physicians to join the staff who are not part of the School of Medicine faculty, enhances faculty recruitment and increases investments from both Tenet and CUMC for upgrading areas such as operating rooms, critical care units and patient floors.
“We are very pleased with the extension of our relationship and the new opportunities it provides for Creighton to strengthen our teaching programs for health care professionals. This renewed agreement reaffirms Creighton’s health education mission and enhances our ability to better serve patients in the Omaha region,” said the Rev. John P. Schlegel, S.J., in the press release.
Creighton owns 26 percent of the medical center and Tenet owns 74 percent. Creighton has never actually fully owned CUMC. According to Rowen Zetterman, M.D., the dean of Creighton’s School of Medicine, an order of nuns actually used to own the hospital.
“When the order of nuns decided to no longer own the hospital they sold it to a company which is now Tenet. Creighton has never owned the hospital,” she said.
“If everything goes along well and the hospital continues to grow and use the new investments for necessary renovations, then we should have the opportunity to renew the contract,” Zetterman said.
“If either partner didn’t meet its obligations that would be grounds for not renewing the partnership.”
The changes outlined in the new contract will continue and improve on CUMC’s tradition of serving the community.
“This renewed commitment strengthens our partnership and will ultimately benefit our patients and employees as well as further enhance our shared commitment of training doctors and other health care professionals to serve the community,” Stephen Newman, M.D., chief operating officer of Tenet Healthcare, said in the press release.
“The hospital services a part of town with little medical service. It’s a high quality teaching hospital with a long history of supporting the Omaha community,” said Rick Black of Tenet’s communications center.
The contract will also benefit students, Zetterman said.
“The continued hospital partnership means that students will continue to have a place to learn. Medical, nursing, pharmacy and allied health students all have the opportunity to study at the hospital, and as we make the hospital better and better, it improves the services available for students to participate in,” Zetterman said.
“We are all connected, and this new agreement is a win-win for Creighton University,” Schlegel said.