It’s a whopper of a Christmas present, to be delivered the last day of December: the Cleveland Clinic will officially give its world-renowned brand and a $250 million capital commitment to Indian River Medical Center, effective Jan.1. With all regulatory hurdles crossed, the last of the closing documents were signed last Monday, to be released from escrow by attorneys for all the parties involved after a 9 a.m. conference call on New Year’s Eve.
In all, the merger deal has taken almost a year to complete. And it’s been almost two years since the hospital leaders voted to consider changing the independent status of the stand-alone, publicly-owned hospital. National experts guided the Vero-based parties through the process, with Cleveland Clinic chosen from among an dozen initial respondents to Juniper Advisory’s partnership query, made in early fall 2017. By November, the list was winnowed to four health systems: Orlando Health, Florida Hospital, HCA and Cleveland Clinic.
When it came time to tour those hospitals, It was Cleveland that first welcomed IRMC officials on a frigid January morning, its stunning main campus, one of the best-known hospitals in the world and the No 2 rated hospital in the U.S., according to U.S. News. With its dazzling white walls lined with museum-quality fine art, Cleveland Clinic appeared to inspire a love-at-first-sight longing in its Vero guests. One year later, the knot will be tied, with the New Year’s Eve providing a fitting celebration of global fireworks and champagne.
As if to head off any hangover-induced confusion, residents won’t be waking up an I’m-not-in-Kansas-anymore Cleveland Clinic logo on their 80-year-old hospital Jan. 1. Cleveland has decided to wait a couple of weeks before mounting new signage for Cleveland Clinic Indian River.
And while three hospitals in Martin and St. Lucie counties are waiting to do the same, official at Martin Health say they have no official date of closing yet. Tradition Medical Center in Port St. Lucie, Martin Memorial South in Palm City and Martin Medical Center in downtown Stuart all expect to be celebrating joining Cleveland Clinic Florida in the very near future. That system began negotiating with Cleveland in October 2018. A third system, Boca Regional Medical Center, was considering Cleveland Clinic but settled on a merger with Baptist Health. Florida Trend magazine recently reported that Cleveland continues to consider further expansion in its Florida division.
Cleveland Clinic Indian River’s new CEO, Dr. Gregory Rosencrance, arrived in Vero two weeks ago. He previously served in Cleveland as director of the health system’s Medicine Institute. IRMC’s interim CEO Karen Davis, who was praised by multiple hospital leaders in the hospital’s final days of solo status, will return to her prior post with a health system consultancy when the merger closes. She has agreed to stay on to help with the transition.
