The University of Michigan Health System has joined Together Health Network, a statewide care network formed two years ago between the Michigan operations of Trinity Health and Ascension Health.
The move provides patients and physicians better access to the highly specialized inpatient and outpatient care offered at University of Michigan Medical Center hospitals in Ann Arbor, including selected transplant services, pediatric care, and certain cancer clinical trial services that Ascension Michigan and Trinity Health do not offer.
“The newly announced agreement with UMHS will provide Mercy Health physicians and patients with access to some quaternary care services generally not available in this part of Michigan,” said Roger Spoelman, president and CEO over the West Michigan region for Trinity Health. “This is a way for high quality local physicians to have a direct line to consult or refer a complex patient.”
In West Michigan, Trinity Health includes Mercy Health Saint Mary’s in Grand Rapids and Mercy Health Muskegon. Ascension Health Michigan includes Borgess Medical Center in Kalamazoo.
Together Health consists of 25 hospitals, hundreds of ambulatory centers operated by Ascension and Trinity Health, plus a dozen physician organizations across the state.
This partnership with U of M Health Systems “helps Together Health to round out its clinical integration strategy to provide patients access to comprehensive care across the continuum. It also paves the way for further, broader clinical collaboration efforts between UMHS and Together Health,” stated an announcement from Together Health.
