Why Northwestern Medicine Is Partnering With Florida’s BayCare

BayCare, a Florida-based nonprofit health system, has announced a partnership with  Northwestern Medicine, a Chicago-area academic health system, to expand access to advanced medical treatments, enhance clinical research, and improve training and education for current and future physicians in West Central Florida.

BayCare and Northwestern Medicine made the announcement last week at Tampa Bay Park in one of the three office buildings that BayCare recently acquired.

BayCare announced it was naming its 36-acre part of the office park the BayCare Academic Health and Research Corridor to reflect its plans to consolidate and grow its academic and research efforts at the location, including the collaboration with Northwestern Medicine. The acquisition for the Corridor increased BayCare's property holdings in west Tampa by 75%. The Corridor sits just west of three of BayCare's 16 hospitals: St. Joseph's, St. Joseph's Children's and St. Joseph's Women's.

Northwestern Medicine include the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. It has 11 hospitals and more than 200 diagnostic and ambulatory sites.

BayCare said the partnership is helping it secure a final key piece in its efforts to grow as an academic health system serving the region, which includes the Tampa Bay area. The collaboration will not change BayCare's ownership, leadership or the composition of its board of trustees, who are all volunteer West Central Florida leaders.

With a signed definitive agreement in place, leaders from both organizations are engaged in the first phase of the collaboration, which will focus on educational and professional development opportunities for clinicians and clinical research development.

"BayCare and Northwestern Medicine share a strategic vision to transform health care by investing in the development of tomorrow's healthcare leaders," said Sowmya Viswanathan, M.D., chief physician executive of BayCare. "Our work together will enable us to provide even more innovative care in the compassionate, community-focused environment our patients want and deserve. More education, training and research mean more access and deeper expertise are available to our patients. And that's why we're here – to serve our communities."

BayCare said it has one of the fastest-growing graduate medical education programs in the nation and an established research infrastructure, creating a solid foundation for integrating academic advancement with patient care.

"This isn't the beginning, it's the next step in a journey we've been focused on for years," said Stephanie Conners, president and chief executive officer of BayCare, in a statement.  "West Central Florida deserves more access to academic medicine and by entering into a strategic collaboration with Northwestern Medicine, we will accelerate our trajectory as an academic health system."

BayCare and Northwestern Medicine will look to expand access to advanced medical treatments and research while creating new educational and training opportunities for physicians, residents, and students, enhancing BayCare's ability to attract, retain and train health care professionals to serve the growing needs of the region.

"We are focused on collaborating with like-minded organizations that are driven by providing patients with greater access to world-class compassionate care, closer to where they live and work," said Howard Chrisman, M.D., president and CEO of Northwestern Memorial HealthCare, in a statement. "By collaborating with BayCare, we have the opportunity to train and educate the next generation of medical professionals and transform the clinical offerings to patients in West Central Florida.”