We expect the great majority of Chattanoogans don’t care who owns the hospital they use as long as it meets their medical needs, doesn’t screw up their billing, has signage to allow family members to visit without having to drop breadcrumbs to find their way out, and serves meals that are at least a notch above average.
So whether Erlanger Health is locally run or is a part of the much larger South Carolina-based Prisma Health, as is being proposed, won’t make a difference to most folks, as long as the aforementioned things are taken care of.
But we think there are some risks in the proposed partnership, just as there were in Erlanger Health’s decision to transition to a private nonprofit model in 2022.
(IN THE NEWS: Erlanger seeks to join South Carolina health system in proposed $2 billion deal)
When that transition was complete in 2023, Erlanger agreed to 15-year covenants saying it would, among other things, remain the city’s only safety-net hospital (for individuals without health insurance or the ability to pay), would continue to be a teaching hospital (largely through the University of Tennessee), and would retain its children’s hospital and status as a Level I trauma center.