Mary Free Bed Signs Third Out-of-Michigan Joint Operating Agreement With Virginia Hospital

Mary Free Bed will manage rehabilitation operations for a hospital in Winchester, Virginia, which is 65 miles southwest of Washington, D.C. and 600 miles from Grand Rapids.  This will create significant span of control issues for Mary Free Bed's management.  Its two previous out-of-state joint operating agreements are in Chicago and South Bend, much closer to their Grand Rapids base:

https://www.crainsgrandrapids.com/news/health-care/mary-free-bed-signs-rehab-partnership-with-virginia-health-system/

Mary Free Bed signs rehab partnership with Virginia health system
By Mark Sanchez - February 15, 2024

A partnership with a Virginia health system extends Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital’s care even further outside of Michigan as it plans to pursue and sign similar additional deals.

Through a joint operating agreement that’s effective March 3, Mary Free Bed will manage day-to-day rehab operations for Valley Health’s Winchester Medical Center and the inpatient rehabilitation program in Winchester, Va.

The agreement represents the latest move under a growth strategy that Mary Free Bed began executing more than a decade ago to maintain independence by partnering with hospitals on rehab care. That occurs through joint operating agreements, professional services contracts, or joint ventures such as the arrangement with Corewell Health’s Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital to develop a new pediatric rehab facility in Grand Rapids.

Mary Free Bed also has joint ventures with Covenant Health in Saginaw, Lansing’s Sparrow Health, and Munson Healthcare in Traverse City, plus agreements to manage rehab units at Schwab Rehabilitation Hospital in Chicago and Beacon Memorial Hospital in South Bend, Ind.

Valley Health is a nonprofit health system with six hospitals that serves markets in northern Virginia and parts of West Virginia and Maryland.

In the joint operating agreement with Valley Health, Mary Free Bed is extending geographically more than with any previous arrangement. Sixty staff members at Winchester Medical Center will become Mary Free Bed employees.

Mary Free Bed executives said the organization wants to secure more partnerships around the country. The Grand Rapids rehab hospital has “active discussions” ongoing with at least four other potential partners, one of which is in Michigan, that could “become good fits for us,” said Chief Operating Officer Bruce Brasser.

“Our success in the Midwest has opened doors for us here in Virginia, and we have other organizations around the country that we’re talking with,” Brasser told Crain’s Grand Rapids Business.

“We are looking to continue to expand rehabilitation care where needed and partner with other like-minded, not-for-profit health systems that value what rehabilitation brings to the community,” he said. “We will follow the opportunities throughout the country as long as they make sense for Mary Free Bed in helping us advance rehabilitation care in anu community that may welcome us.”

While no deal is imminent, Mary Free Bed could sign one more partnership in 2024, Brasser said.

Mary Free Bed connected with Winchester Medical Center through a former co-worker that Brasser worked with at Munson Healthcare’s Cadillac Hospital. Toyna Smith, who previously led Cadillac, now serves as president at Winchester Medical Center. She reached out to Brasser a year ago about potentially forming partnership with Winchester Medical Center, he said.

“They identified the need to improve their rehabilitation services and expand, and we started a series of conversations. Ultimately, they reviewed us and others and selected Mary Free Bed as their partner, and we selected them,” Brasser said. “We feel like this is a great fit for Mary Free Bed and our continued expansion.”

In an announcement about the deal, Valley Health President and CEO Mark Nantz said that “both organizations share a strong commitment to creating excellent patient experiences and this strategic partnership further supports Valley Health’s mission to serve our community by improving health.”

The biggest challenge for Mary Free Bed with the latest joint operating agreement is the geographic distance between Grand Rapids and Virginia “and how do we support this team both in person and virtually as if they were in the state of Michigan and drivable for us,” Brasser said.

“We have a plan for leadership presence on site over the next several months to make sure this is a smooth transition, and the employees feel very welcomed as part of the Mary Free Bed family,” he said.

Through more than 60 locations in Michigan, Indiana and Illinois, Mary Free Bed last year provided rehabilitation care to more than 90,000 children and adult patients.