Texas Hospital is Now Jointly Owned by Adventists and Other Faiths
by Adventist Today News Team
Huguley Memorial Medical Center south of Fort Worth, Texas, has over the past year become jointly owned by Texas Health Resources (THR) and Adventist Health System (AHS). On April 18 hospital executives, civic leaders and staff gathered for a ceremony unveiling its new name: Texas Health Huguley Fort Worth South.
“What began as a courtship and marriage has resulted in a happy honeymoon and the prospect for a happily ever after,” stated the Alvarado Star the next day. A year ago AHS formed a joint venture company with THR which “owns the controlling interest in the joint venture and AHS continues to manage the daily operations of the” institution.
Adventist Today asked AHS how this new organizational arrangement affects the status of Huguley as an Adventist hospital. AHS “continues to operate the hospital,” spokesperson Melanie Lawhorn told Adventist Today. “Ken Finch is still the CEO, the mission is unchanged, and AHS manages the daily operations. The president of the Southwestern Union Conference remains on the board.”
“The first year of the joint partnership has been productive,” the Alvarado Star quoted Rich Reiner, president of AHS. “Facilities enhancements have been made and more significant expansion is planned,” the newspaper reported. “By combining our resources and talents, we have already begun to more effectively meet the health care needs of those we serve,” it quoted Doug Hawthorne, THR chief executive officer.
Herbert Huguley, a dentist and real estate investor from Dallas, left his $6 million estate to the Seventh-day Adventist Church to build a hospital in memory of his parents. Huguley Memorial Medical Center opened in February 1977, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “It’s a change for those who have been here through the 36 years,” admitted Finch about the new organization. “This is just the start of a lot of positive things that will be happening,” Reiner said.
THR is one the largest faith-based nonprofit health systems in the country with 25 hospitals in Texas, including Presbyterian and Methodist institutions. AHS is the largest Protestant health care provider in America with 44 campuses and 7,700 licensed beds. It cares for four million patients each year and employs 78,000 workers.
Asked about the benefits of this new organizational arrangement, Lawhorn told Adventist Today, “The hospital gets the best of both worlds … the national brand and resources of AHS [and] the local recognition and resources of the Texas Health brand. If you’ve ever been to Texas, you know that the Texas Health brand is very strong and recognizable up and down the Interstate 35 corridor.”
It is generally believed by experts that health care institutions cannot survive as stand-alone organizations in the current situation in the United States where political and economic pressures seek to reduce the overall cost while science and demographics increase the cost. The new organization at Huguley may be seen as a creative approach to preserve the Adventist affiliation of an institution while gaining the benefits of also being affiliated with a strong local network.
04 May 2013 @ 6:05 pm
Be ye not unequally yked with unbelievers.
Maranatha
04 May 2013 @ 6:07 pm
Correction
yked should be yoked.
06 May 2013 @ 1:44 am
I'd rather be yoked with rational and reasonable "unbelievers" than with some kinds of "true believers" (TBs)–particularly those TBs who think there is a key text from the Bible or EGW for every possible question or situation.
11 May 2013 @ 10:18 pm
I would agree with your first statement that apparently those in some high places in the AHS are no different or may be worse than an ethical nonSDA. We would wish hospitals would evaluate the ethics of everyone before hiring them. However, I would trust someone who has their ethics rooted in the Bible and EGW than one who does not–they just needn't be throwing quotes at everyone. Are you saying that these two sources aren't reliable when deciding right and wrong?
06 May 2013 @ 4:25 am
I've heard many business people say they would never do business with a fellow Adventist.
08 May 2013 @ 2:45 am
Truth Seeker,
Why do you declare them unbelievers?
09 May 2013 @ 4:47 pm
I'm also wondering how TS defines "unbelievers." What do they unbelieve?
12 May 2013 @ 3:00 am
This brings another point to ponder now. Is the Adventist Health System on the verse of going on the way side by being swallow up by the non-Adventist hospital corporations who more financial clout because the ever changing health care environment?
12 May 2013 @ 8:16 am
"Herbert Huguley, a dentist and real estate investor from Dallas, left his $6 million estate to the Seventh-day Adventist Church to build a hospital in memory of his parents."
————–
The generous donor's wish is being compromised. He could have given the money to the state or to more thriving health care institutions back then. By giving it to the Adventist Church shows that he probably wanted an Adventist owned institution and not a co-owned one.
Seventh-day Adventists should not get themselves embroiled in business partnerships with those not of our own faith let alone secular organisations. Whilst individuals may do so at their own risk, the Church on the other hand should not; even though it may be perceived as beneficial by some.
Getting in cahoots with non-Adventist business partners, will inevitably compromise our position as a Church and as a Christian health service provider especially since control of the institution isn’t fully in the hands of the Adventist Church. Furthermore, it will push Adventist healthcare away from our mission as a church. This also undermines the donor’s wish for it to have been an Adventist institution. It may be very likely possible that AHS will eventually sell out to their business partners, or should I say 'masters.'
13 May 2013 @ 4:37 pm
I agree fully with the comments of 22oct1844.
Maranatha
13 May 2013 @ 8:13 pm
I wonder if TS would prefer not to respond to the request for him/her to define "unbelievers." What do "unbelievers" unbelieve?
15 May 2013 @ 3:18 pm
Why not "yoke" with others. Our hospitals employ many more non-adventists than adventists! I find it sad that we have strayed so far from the council we have been given.
15 May 2013 @ 7:03 pm
I wonder if "Butayl" would like to guess why Adventist hospitals are hiring non-Adventists in such high numbers? Could it be that we are living in the 21st Century and not the 19th Century? The "council" we have been given is ignored because it reflects conditions that no longer exist..
16 May 2013 @ 1:45 am
If AHS is the largest protestant health care provider in America whats the purpose of
joining with someone who has lesser presence???
17 May 2013 @ 11:49 pm
It is the strategy of leverage and buying power along with volumn in order to be competitive in the healthcare business for the future. With the Affordable Healthcare Act going into full force in 2014 hospitals want to survive. Hospitals have to compete to stay in business. Being benevelance as a religious institution is not being competive and staying afloate as in the old days.
18 May 2013 @ 8:32 pm
Hate to break it to you but the Adventist Health Systems dropped the benevolent front close to 20 years ago.