In name, one of the Tri-State’s finest old institutions is passing on. It was announced last week that Deaconess Health System is purchasing the majority of assets of the doctor-owned Welborn Clinic, and the network of clinics will soon become know as Deaconess Clinic.
It is no small merger. It was reported Monday that 45 of Welborn Clinic’s 57 doctors will be employed at Deaconess Clinic. In all, the expanded organization will have more than 80 physicians and more than 500 employees.
The merger is the latest step in the evolution of health care in Evansville, spurred on by the competition between hospitals and health care groups that was so fierce in the 1990s and included the closing of one hospital. Not too many years ago, Evansville had three hospitals, Deaconess, St. Mary’s Medical Center and Welborn Baptist Hospital, and residents swore by their trusted favorites.
But in 1999, it became advantage to St. Mary’s when the East Side hospital purchased Welborn Baptist Hospital, located in the Downtown area, and, over the ensuing years, shut it down.
It was a controversial move, criticized by those who said that near-Downtown residents were being denied close-by medical care, especially emergency care. On the positive side, and as a result of the sale, the Welborn Baptist Foundation was created and has been a boon to the area. Last November, the foundation gave out $4.4 million in grants to Tri-State nonprofit groups.
The competition then narrowed to the two remaining hospital groups, Deaconess and St. Mary’s, with much focus on luring better- off East Side, Warrick County patients, and with the remarkable development of medical facilities on the Warrick/Vanderburgh County line.
All the while this was going on, Welborn Clinic remained as it had been for decades, an independent, physician-owned medical clinic that happened to share the same name as Welborn Baptist Hospital, as well as proximity in the Downtown.
While a lot of people thought they had the same owner, they were separate medical businesses. That’s why the clinic was not a part of the hospital sale to St. Mary’s.
According to the clinic’s own history, available on the Internet, its roots trace back to 1894, when a group of physicians founded the Evansville Sanitarium, which was later named Walker Hospital. There, the doctors rented office space. Then, in 1947, the physicians reorganized and drew up plans for a facility of their own in Downtown Evansville. Welborn Clinic’s first building, a one-story structure, was completed in late 1951. Today, it has satellite facilities throughout the Evansville area and Southern Indiana.
The thing about Welborn Clinic is that thousands of individuals and families have gone there for their medical care since the 1950s. They have built up a trust in the doctors, nurses and staff there, so it is not so easy to make the transition, even if it is mainly in name. Most, but not all, of the physicians and staff from Welborn will still be there when the switch is made in October.
Five years ago, the clinic prepared a report which said that its eight locations were providing medical care to nearly 25 percent of the local population. That included 44 percent of Vanderburgh residents age 65 and older. When you combine Welborn Clinic physicians with the Deaconess physicians, it becomes an impressive group.
As for the hospital wars, this advantage goes to Deaconess as it takes Welborn Clinic under its umbrella of care.
While some among us are disappointed to see the Welborn name headed into history, we recognize that Evansville is fortunate to have outstanding medical care centered around St. Mary’s and Deaconess.
That is something that should not be affected by this latest development.
(c) 2008 Evansville Courier & Press. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.
Comments