A merger that has been in the works for months has materialized. Recently we learned that four cancer treatment and research centers were finalizing plans to merge into one large “collaboration”. Before, Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (SCCA), Seattle Children’s Hospital (SCH), UW Medicine, and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center were independent organizations offering cancer-related treatment to area patients, and also conducting cancer research. Another local hospital system merger means fewer, bigger options for cancer care in Washington
Now, Fred Hutch and SCCA will merge to create the “Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center”. This new entity will be a part of UW Medicine and its cancer program, while SCH will continue to operate independently but will be the collaboration’s main site for pediatric cancer care.
Dr. Thomas J. Lynch, president of the new Center, touts the benefits to patients, including reducing barriers to collaboration, and speeding up patient access to new cancer treatments.
I’ve written in the past about the trend, both nationally and locally, of larger hospital systems acting as “big fish”, eating the smaller ones and causing potential problems for patients who are faced with fewer and fewer options for health care.
It is less clear whether this will be a byproduct of the merger, or at least to what extent patient choices have been reduced. The merger itself is only between the former Fred Hutch and SCCA – over the coming months SCCA clinical sites will be “rebranded” with Fred Hutch logos, and all the SCCA employees will become Fred Hutch employees.
From a medical malpractice perspective, it remains unclear to what extent the new Center will oversee cancer treatments provided at UW or SCH, whether any standards or guidelines for providing such treatment will change, or whether meritorious claims may arise from information mismanagement when the systems merge.
This can include such situations as treating providers not having access to important clinical information, or entering orders for testing that, for whatever reason, do not get accomplished. Such simple administrative errors can give rise to valid claims involving delays in diagnosing and/or treating all manner of cancers.
For now, it’s “wait and see” with regard to whether/to what extent this new “collaboration” changes anything with regard to medical malpractice claims arising from care provided there.
