UT Southwestern and Texas Health Resources to create regional health network

Dallas’ UT Southwestern Medical Center and Arlington’s Texas Health Resources are creating an integrated regional health network.

The University of Texas System Board of Regents approved the plan on Friday.

The new integrated network, to be named Southwestern Health Resources, will leverage the strengths of two local health care systems to provide increased access to primary care and specialized care for the people of North Texas, according to the two organizations.

Plans call for the network to include 27 hospitals throughout North Texas, as well as a network of physicians (UTSW faculty, Texas Health employed, university-affiliated and independent) from both organizations.

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Southwestern Health Resources is expected to improve the quality of care and enhance the efficiency of providing health services to North Texans. The network will enable hospitals and physicians to work together, using common health profiles so that each person receives quality care at the most appropriate location, according to a news release from the two organizations. The integrated network will also create increased access to clinical trials and medical specialists, as well as opportunities to expand medical education and research initiatives.

“Both organizations share a strong commitment to improving well-being and providing the best possible care for patients at every stage of their life’s journey,” said Barclay Berdan, CEO of Texas Health Resources. “We expect the new network will help improve quality and enhance affordability during a time when patients, insurers, and other payers are increasingly sensitive to health care costs. It will enable physicians from UTSW, Texas Health Physicians Group and independent practices the opportunity to come together in a high-performing, clinically integrated care model, governed and led by physicians. But most importantly, this supports our shared mission of improving the health of the people in the communities we serve.”

The 27-hospital network will focus on delivering coordinated care through UT Southwestern’s two university hospitals and Texas Health Resource’s 25 community hospitals. A key component of this network will be a new organization (a Joint Operating Company) formed to bring together the three Dallas hospitals – UTSW’s William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital and Zale Lipshy University Hospital, and THR’s Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas.

UT Southwestern will establish a new campus in Fort Worth at the site of the unfinished former Victory Healthcare Center, the school announced in August..

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The University of Texas System Board of Regents approved establishment of the UT Southwestern Monty and Tex Moncrief Medical Center at Fort Worth in August, made possible by a $25 million commitment from W.A. “Tex” Moncrief Jr.