U-M Health System Affiliation with Metro Health and Women’s Healthcare Research

U-M Health System to Affiliate with Metro Health

The University of Michigan Health System would further expand its reach into the Grand Rapids area under a proposed affiliation agreement announced Monday with Metro Health Corp. Metro Health, comprised of a 208-bed hospital in Wyoming and 20 outpatient offices, would join the U-M system if the affiliation agreement is finalized after a due-diligence period, which is expected to take months. U-M would then make a to-be-determined capital contribution to Metro Health. The affiliation agreement would give U-M its first hospital near Grand Rapids, although it already has clinics in the area.

Representatives for the nonprofit systems emphasized that the proposed affiliation is not a sale and that no layoffs are expected to result at either health system. "Metro Health will bring additional U-M (health system) services to the 1.5 million people who live in western Michigan," said Mary Masson, spokeswoman for the U-M system. Metro Health spokeswoman Ellen Bristol said the Grand Rapids-area system is not pursuing the agreement due to any financial distress. "We are doing well financially," Bristol said. She also noted the trend in recent years of hospital mergers and affiliations across the country.

Improving Medical Practices for Women

While the health system expands, a major area that still needs improvement is the research done on medical practices for women. One doctor who is researching these practices in medicine is OB/GYN Dr. Vanessa Dalton. She completed her residency here at the University of Michigan. Dr. Dalton is the founding director of the Program on Women’s Healthcare Effectiveness Research, or PoWHER for short, made up of staff from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Michigan Medicine.

PoWHER conducts research, using different techniques, in hopes of improving the healthcare field for women: specifically, quality, access, and affordability. Dr. Dalton describes PoWHER as “a group of people that study process and the health system and policy and what roles those factors have on health outcomes.” These factors are the foundation of medical care and have large impacts on the success of patients’ health.

Overview of Health System and Research Data

• Metro Health Capacity: 208-bed hospital and 20 outpatient offices.
• Service Reach: 1.5 million people in western Michigan.
• PoWHER Focus: Improving quality, access, and affordability in women's healthcare.
• Research Methodology: Leveraging existing data to study state and hospital policies.
• Global Benchmarking: Comparative study of prenatal care requirements among 17 different countries.

Research Methodology and Future Goals

At PoWHER, most of the research conducted is not done in a typical personal-patient clinical setting. Instead, they “leverage” existing data and look at how different state policies or hospital policies affect patient outcomes; they are researching the “big picture.” In particular, PoWHER looks at the disparity in outcomes and how factors like income, race, or geography affect them.

One study conducted by PoWHER looked at different prenatal care requirements among 17 different countries and found that family planning and housing security were commonly left out in prenatal care education. In the future, Dr. Dalton hopes to look at a broader life span in PoWHER’s research. Since some of their work studies people who have a feminine identity but don’t necessarily have female anatomy, she also wants to be able to "find the right language to describe themselves."