Banner Health, which has now officially moved into the local market, wants to give Tucsonans not only an academic medical center, but a community hospital, too.
Phoenix-based nonprofit Banner Health’s merger with the $1.2-billion Tucson-based nonprofit University of Arizona Health Network took effect at midnight Friday, with Banner as the surviving entity. Now the company wants to grow its market share in Tucson. Banner has about 44 percent of the Phoenix market share.
“We’ve got about 25 percent of the market share in Tucson, so we see that as a real invitation to growth. ... We have got to establish, particularly here, more of a welcome to community-based providers,” Kathy Bollinger, president and chief executive officer of the Banner-University Medicine Division, said during an interview Monday.
Officials say patients won’t notice many immediate changes, aside from some temporary signs announcing the new names of the hospitals Banner acquired in the deal — Banner-University Medical Center Tucson at 1501 N. Campbell Ave. and Banner-University Medical Center South at 2800 E. Ajo Way.
At Banner-University Medical Center Tucson on Monday, there were some indicators of the new company’s presence, with many employees wearing T-shirts emblazoned with both the UA and Banner logos. And in the lobby, white balloons announced the name change along with the slogan, “Endless Possibilities.”
Those possibilities include more patients by positioning Banner as having more than academic medical centers, officials say.
“We need to be seen in this community not just as the organization that can take care of the most complex patients,” Bollinger said. “We also want to be the organization that the community thinks of as the place where they would want to receive their care, more like a community hospital.”
Banner, which is now Arizona’s largest private employer, has three academic medical centers — two local hospitals plus the Banner-University Medical Center Phoenix, which until Friday was known as Banner Good Samaritan. But those hospitals and their clinics are not solely dedicated the most difficult, specialized cases, Bollinger said.
“Since the population of Tucson is growing ever so slowly, if we are going to grow, we’re going to have to grow by earning business that is being rendered elsewhere,” she said.
Officials held four town halls for employees Monday and planned on holding four more today.
Banner leaders who met with the Star on Monday said the company is trying to be as transparent as possible. The officials want local residents to know they won’t find themselves driving to Phoenix for specialty services that have historically been offered here.
“We have committed in our affiliation agreement to maintain a whole list of services in Tucson for a period of at least 5 years,” Bollinger said. “Transplant happens to be one of them. Cardiovascular services happens to be one of them.”
Some Phoenix patients may find themselves driving to Tucson for care, she noted.
While Banner Good Samaritan has in the past referred patients in need of a heart transplant to the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix, Bollinger said officials will want to refer patients to Tucson, “where we can have one umbrella for the heart transplant program ... we like to keep the business within the company.”
Diamond Children’s will remain part of the Banner-University Medical Center Tucson and its name will stay the same. The clinical operations of the UA Cancer Center will now come under Banner, though the clinical side of a UA Cancer Center in Phoenix will continue to be operated by Dignity Health.
“I want the community to have the expectation that Banner is going to improve the well-being of this community,” Bollinger said. “And we’re not going to do that by moving business from Tucson to Phoenix. We are going to do that by improving and increasing the access to care right here in Tucson.
“We intend to become part of the fabric of this community, to understand the needs and, to the best of our ability, meet those needs.”
Officials want to improve former UA Health Network clinics, which may include some renovations. And the company has already decided to rebuild the Banner-University Medical Center Tucson hospital, which was originally built in 1971.
“We’re committed to put $500 million into this community and our intention is to grow,” Bollinger said. “We wouldn’t be making that kind of an investment in Tucson if our intention was to shrink. We want to create more and stronger programs right here in Tucson.”
