OMC joins GHS

The boards of Greenville Health System and Oconee Medical Center have approved a binding agreement that makes Oconee Medical Center part of the GHS integrated health system via a long-term operating lease, effective October 1, 2014. The OMC Board of Directors and the GHS Board of Trustees approved the lease in separate meetings on Wednesday. The agreement grants GHS an operating lease of 50 years, with the potential for two additional 25-year lease periods. The lease provides for full integration of OMC into the operations of GHS, as the eighth hospital in the system. The lease becomes effective on October 1, giving the two organizations time to plan the transition. The agreement caps a six-month process that started formally in January when the Boards of the two organizations signed a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding to explore a possible affiliation. After several months of discussions and preliminary analysis, the Boards approved a non-binding Letter of Intent that described in broad terms the features of a potential affiliation. Since the approval of the Letter of Intent in April, the two organizations have been engaged in legal due diligence and have been crafting the final lease agreement. The operating lease will give GHS responsibility for all assets and liabilities of OMC. GHS will assume all of the debt of OMC, which includes approximately $80 million in long-term bond-related debt. The Board of Directors of OMC will continue to function but its role will be to oversee the lease and to advise the GHS Board of Trustees. The GHS Board will have ultimate responsibility for strategy, policy and decision-making for the entire health system. As part of the lease, GHS pledges to deliver quality healthcare services to the people of Oconee County; to keep facilities in good repair; to make facility improvements as needed; and to meet the healthcare needs of the communities served by OMC now and in the future. “We are so fortunate to have an organization of the caliber of Greenville Health System right here in the Upstate, and even more fortunate to be part of GHS,” said Jeanne Ward, OMC’s president and CEO. “I’ve worked at Oconee Medical Center for more than 40 years, many of those as a nurse. It was critical to me that we find an organization that shares our vision and values of clinical quality and has a deep connection to the communities it serves, just as we do. We have found that in Greenville Health System.” Ward will continue to lead OMC. On October 1, OMC staff will become GHS employees. Employed physicians will be offered positions within University Medical Group, the physician network of GHS.