WSTB

It's mostly empty platitudes. Here are some relevant excerpts:

Dr. Julie Ann Freischlag, CEO of AHWFB, chief academic officer of Atrium Health and dean of the WFU School of Medicine, told Triad Business Journal there is no cause for concern that Wake Forest will lose its place within the larger Atrium Health enterprise.

“We’re really excited that the way this is set up,” she said. “We’ll be a part of a bigger group, so I think if anything, people will know more who we are, and we’ll be able to touch more people and tell them about the research and education – the wonderful things we do.”

Dr. Freischlag said a larger patient population will make it easier and better to complete clinical trials and to translate new ideas and treatments to patients.

“This combination of two leading healthcare organizations will create even more opportunities for Wake Forest University School of Medicine to lead in academic research and education missions,” Susan Wente, president of Wake Forest, said in a message to the community yesterday. “Through access to an expansive clinical network, we will have a greater impact on training the next generation of physicians and healthcare workers and be positioned to accelerate translational research, health equity, learning and discovery.”

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist will also keep its name locally in Winston-Salem and the Triad.

For Dr. Freischlag, the new strategic combination comes with added responsibility. She currently coordinates all activities in North Carolina and will now convene residencies in other states. There are almost 2,000 residents in Advocate Aurora system, Freischlag told TBJ.

What a bunch of double-talk to put it nicely. Wake Forest Medical in W-S already was “diminished” when it was acquired by Atrium and 80 percent of all funding for new development was earmarked for Charlotte. Now funding will be even more watered-down, so to speak.

WHAT, Wake Forest will keep its name locally. When did this happen. Is this an admission that the Wake Forest name has now been removed from the Charlotte campus (I should say Wake Forest’s second medical campus, but we all know what a joke that is meaning Charlotte will become the Wake Forest Medical primary campus; that is, of course, if the name Wake Forest remains). Further, it now seems clear from this utterance that the name Wake Forest will not be marketed beyond the so-called triad (oh that word), and be unknown in the new territory. I repeat, Kowabunga Buffalo Bob.

It'll be "Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist" until they spend the money for a rebranding to "Advocate Health Wake Forest Baptist".

Tomato tomahto.

As you know, I like to see what the other city or cities are saying. In this case Chicago and Milwaukee. This is actually a big deal and while North Carolina news sources didn't really say much about Wake Forest, Chicago and Milwaukee did. Crain's Chicago article also included "Winston-Salem" in their article. Advocate Aurora Health is the largest health care provider in Chicago and Milwaukee and Wake Forest University School of Medicine will be Advocate Health’s affiliated academic institution. Not even Northwestern or Loyola University can claim that. A suburban Chicago newspaper said this "It will employ more than 150,000 people and serve as one of the nation's 10 largest graduate medical education programs. This is why Dr. Julie Ann Freischlag will have to travel more, as we read in local articles. Wake Forest University School of Medicine will serve as the academic core of the nation's fifth largest health care system. This is good news for research, attracting the best students, national standing, research partnerships, and translational medicine... which is the only building that is fully designed for the Innovation Quarter, but doesn't seem to be moving forward. You may remember we were waiting on two new buildings and now we are only hearing about one (Eye Institute), which is still in its design phases. I think the translational and population health building was intended to be the first building (most important to the system and the only one of the two that was fully funded by Atrium alone), but I'm guessing they knew about this (potential at that time) merger and knew it could lead to a major expansion of that building. I have a feeling this will have a major positive impact on Collaboration Street in downtown Winston-Salem? Seeing how much focus everyone in the merger had on translational medicine, I'm starting to think that is the biggest prize? It's also what health-tech/device and research companies and startups wanting to work with one of the nation's largest health care systems, across two major regions, will want a location near. Now that I've said this you will notice how much they talk about translational medicine on the Atrium side, which is Wake Forest and the translational and population health center will be in downtown Winston-Salem! In the Chicago Tribune, the co-CEOs said "translating medical research into practice" as a goal. A big concern I had was the CEO. If it was a Chicago-based company with a Chicago CEO, that may push Wake Forest into the background, could lead to the new organization relocating the most valuable assets to Chicago, and maybe Winston-Salem not seeing much (if any) corporate/educational partnership referrals and investment. Thankfully, Eugene Woods will return as CEO in 18 months and it will be based in Charlotte. Both Milwaukee and Chicago news sources said both CEOS will be co-CEOs for 18 months, after the merger is completed. Under Eugene Woods' leadership, Winston-Salem's Innovation Quarter is starting to make gains in partnerships, companies interested in working with researchers in Winston-Salem, and in investment at the Innovation Quarter. The doors the Atrium merger opened for downtown Winston-Salem are very impressive! This merger may dilute some of the Charlotte-centeredness of the organization, too. Now there is a city larger than Charlotte at the table and another equal to Charlotte also at the table. Charlotte won't be able to dominate everything. It will be a little more balanced. According to the new co-CEO (for 18 months), James Skogsbergh, no one will relocate to Charlotte. Chicago and Milwaukee news sources said the company made remote work permanent last year, ending the need for an actual headquarters office in both cities. So, the organization will embrace work-from-home instead of consolidating in Charlotte or moving things around to four different cities. It not only benefits Chicago and Milwaukee, it also benefits Winston-Salem. I do want to add this is a loss for Milwaukee, since Advocate Aurora had a dual-headquarters set-up in both Chicago and Milwaukee. This is the second big headquarters loss for Chicago, which recently lost Boeing to Northern Virginia / Washington D.C. suburbs. They are looking to increase their investment in data analytics and digital consumer-facing infrastructure, so maybe that is where some of the new jobs will be? Maybe this will be in Chicago, since each city has something post-merger from this? Charlotte: Headquarters, Winston-Salem: likely a larger translational health center and a top-10 graduate medical education program, Milwaukee: Health Equity Institute, and Chicago: ? I'm guessing those new tech jobs are going there?

The reason Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist's name won't be changed is due to this creating a joint operating company that will own the different brands in each region. It's a company that owns other companies with a board that has members from those other companies/brands that are merged into it. No money is exchanged in this merger, just like the merger with Wake Forest Baptist Health and yes, the names stay the same. Three different names (Advocate, Atrium, and Aurora) in three different places.

As usual, I hope you are correct, F&M, but my money is on everything in this conglomerate not identifying with Chicago to identify with Charlotte especially with their larger than W-S WFU Medical Campus.

This new collaboration should be to Winston-Salem’s advantage by diluting some of the power strings in Charlotte, and getting the Wake Forest name out on a national level. We sometimes take for granted what an important card our top research university plays.

And we also need to take into consideration that the School of Medicine's operating budgets are going to get much bigger in order to accommodate the much larger clinical operations that they now have access to. I went on the wikipedia page for Advocate/Aurora Health and they have existing relationships with several schools of medicine both in Illinois and Wisconsin. I would think it would take some time for this new enterprise to disentangle themselves from these affiliations. Are we to believe that WFU Sch. of Med is going to completely take over these academic medical responsibilities and not open yet another school of medicine in Chicago, Milwaukee or both??

I was thinking it would be interesting for Wake Forest to have a medical school in Chicago. With more than one satellite, Charlotte would lose some of the pull to take everything and the main campus would likely remain the headquarters for all of the outside satellites. It would also spread Wake Forest's name and alumni to a major city.

Interesting F&M, and would be a coup, but I fear WFU is too small to pull it off and let’s not forget it’s part of Atrium.

Interesting discussion! Obviously if Wake were to open another research center and/or campus in the Chicago area, it would generate quite a few shockwaves in the academic research world! It would take some considerable funding to pull that off, so I looked at the top 10 companies headquartered in the metro area. They are: 1. Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. www.walgreensbootsalliance.com Deerfield, IL 2 Boeing Co. www.boeing.com (Boeing is of course headed to Washington DC to try to save itself!). 3 Archer Daniels Midland Co. www.adm.com 4. Caterpillar Inc. www.caterpillar.com 5. United Continental Holdings Inc. www.unitedcontinental-holdings.com 6. Allstate Corp. www.allstate.com 7. Deere & Co. www.deere.com 8. Exelon Corp. www.exeloncorp.com Chicago, IL 9 Abbvie Inc. www.abbvie.com 10. Abbott Laboratories www.abbott.com Abbott Park, IL 11 Kraft Heinz Co. www.kraftheinz-company.com 12. Mondelez International Inc. www.mondelez-international.com 13. US Foods Holding Corp. www.USfoods.com 14. McDonald’s Corp. www.aboutmcdonalds.com 15. Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. 22. Baxter International Inc. www.baxter.com. That would put Wake in the same town as Walgreens, Abbvie, Abbott, and Baxter International which could potentially make for some interesting research partnerships. Then you have The University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, Rush Medical College, Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University and The University of Illinois Medical School. Wake would be competing against some heavyweights but it’s not out of the question. Very interesting to think about!

Did anyone notice the funding amount listed in WF Baptist’s press release regarding the signage change? It stated Atrium is investing $700MM into the Triad region, $450MM earmarked for the new hospital tower. That is a far cry from $3.4B.

I really hate saying “I told you so.”

Even if WF Medical could compete in the Chicago environment, which is highly doubtful, that would drain what paltry resources Atrium is tossing to WF in W-S. Whilst worth considering maybe, it’s just too unrealistic at least from a standpoint of directing such a program from W-S.