The two boards in charge of Indian River Medical Center voted Tuesday to enter into detailed negotiations with Cleveland Clinic to take over the publicly owned hospital.

“We were extremely fortunate to be choosing from among four exceptional organizations, all of which have unique strengths,” said Hospital District Chair Marybeth Cunningham. “We believe that a partnership with Cleveland Clinic, a world-class organization, is the best way to grow upon the foundation of quality clinical care that has been built at IRMC.”

The Hospital District trustees and hospital board members made the decision Tuesday afternoon in separate meetings. The hospital board vote was unanimous while the district board vote was 4 to 3.

After choosing the four finalists in late November 2017, board members and trustees held a series of public meetings to inspect all four proposals against the Board and Trustees’ strategic objectives. Juniper Advisory, the financial advisor for the process, made a presentation Tuesday morning to both boards of the overview of the four revised proposals.

“Throughout this process I have been incredibly impressed with the hard work, dedication, and professionalism of the IRMC physicians and staff,” said IRMC Board Chair Dr. Wayne Hockmeyer. “It is because of their commitment and the culture they’ve built that we had strong interest from terrific organizations. Cleveland Clinic shares our team’s patient-first focus, and we look forward to working with them on building a partnership that makes sense for our community.”

What’s Next?

Hospital board members, hospital District trustees and the Cleveland Clinic will begin preparing a non-binding letter of intent that outlines the plan for the partnership. For the months ahead, the three entities will work toward finalizing the terms of an agreement and conducting legal and financial procedures to reach a definitive agreement.

A definitive agreement is expected within three to four months, officials said.

Earlier story

The two boards in charge of Indian River Medical Center have begun deliberations on a finalist to take over the publicly owned hospital.

The hospital’s board of directors and the county’s Hospital District trustees are separately trying to decide which of four candidates will have exclusivity to begin negotiating a definitive agreement.

They retreated to their respective board rooms – one in the hospital’s administration wing, and the other at District offices across the street – to whittle a diverse list that includes the following:

The world-renowned Cleveland Clinic, a non-profit physician-led hospital group eager to expand its presence in Florida beyond Broward County;
The for-profit HCA, the largest hospital management company in the nation;
Adventist Health, the largest protestant health care system in the country;
Orlando Health, a central Florida system hoping to expand through the southeast, which now includes as its flagship hospital Orlando Regional Medical Center.

The board members and District trustees spent the morning listening to hospital merger experts from Juniper Advisory sum up the prospective partners’ final proposals, the summaries of which are available on IRMCtomorrow.com.

James Burgdorfer of Juniper Advisory gives an overview of finalists. Video by Nick Samuel