LANCASTER, PA — Two years ago, Lancaster Regional Medical Center asked local doctors to invest in the city hospital, offering them a say in how it was run in return for their dollars.

Local doctors were cool to the joint venture proposal and it never got off the ground. The leader who promoted the idea, Brad Nurkin, left the hospital six months later.

Now the proposal is back on the table, but geared to Heart of Lancaster Regional Medical Center, Regional's sister hospital near Lititz. Both hospitals are owned by Health Management Associates, a Florida-based hospital chain.

HMA has held meetings over the past two months with local physicians about launching a joint venture at the Warwick Township hospital, according to two e-mails sent to about 30 local physicians and medical officials here.

George E. Miller, chief executive officer of Heart and Regional, declined to comment about the proposal.

An August e-mail noted the benefits of the proposal to doctors would include improving quality and outcomes at the hospital, promoting the doctors' active participation in the delivery of care, and returning an investment corresponding to the investment that would be made.

A follow-up email noted "a significant level of interest" was shown at the August meeting, resulting in a second meeting held Sept. 3.

This is the latest plan floated by HMA, which is looking for ways to bolster the hospitals it has run since 1999 and 2000.

It replaces the plans of Miller's predecessor, Mike Cowling, who left here in May.

Late last year, Cowling had proposed consolidating Heart and Regional, shifting inpatient surgeries to and enlarging Heart, focusing on outpatient services at Regional and changing both the hospitals' names.

Those changes "just are not happening," Miller said. "It's a change in direction."

Referring to Regional, he said, "Our plans are to grow and expand this facility, as well as the facility at Heart.

"We think it's extremely important, and so do our physicians. I honestly believe from a community perspective it's important to have choices in town."

Both Regional and Heart will focus on their general and orthopedic surgery services, Miller said. Heart also will work to increase its maternity services.

Other specialties also will continue to grow at the two hospitals, Miller said.

"We provide some very boutique services, or subspecialized services, here that we will continue to focus on," he said.

This includes Regional's da Vinci Surgical System, just updated with a $1.8 million piece of equipment. A team of urologists use the system's robotic arms, bearing surgical tools, to do prostate surgery that Miller described as "no longer doing your father's prostatectomy."

Tami Lee, chief nursing officer, said the hospitals' main focus will be quality, patient safety and patient satisfaction.

The two hospitals share some managers and management ideas but they will not be working as one.

"Realizing we are at four years in the Lititz market, this is a brand-new facility," Miller said. "We are growing our business one patient at a time."

HMA bought Heart's predecessor, the former Community Hospital of Lancaster in Lancaster Township, in 1999. HMA closed the hospital and opened a new $60 million hospital, renamed Heart of Lancaster, in 2004.

HMA purchased St. Joseph Hospital on College Avenue in 2000, renaming it Lancaster Regional a year later.


Staff writer Cindy Stauffer can be reached at cstauffer@LNPnews.com or 481-6024.