The announcement that Geary Community Hospital and Salina Regional Health Center will explore the potential of a strategic alliance was made this past week. During the next few months both facilities will work together to review options of how that partnership might look.

Geary Community Hospital is a county-owned facility. The chairman of the Geary County Commission, Ben Bennett, stated that Salina Regional Health Center has working relationships with hospitals in Lindsborg and Concordia. “And they’re looking at strengthening the spokes of a wheel with them being the hub. It could be a very good move for us, it could be a move that is not something that we can work with. But we don’t know without going into some observation.”

The news release on the partnership exploratory phase said the two hospitals had agreed to enter into a period of discovery to examine the potential of a strategic alliance to better serve the patients and families of their communities plus central and north central Kansas.

Bennett said there was a desire to have information on this process revealed. “And the Board of Trustees ( GCH Trustees ) felt if they were going to be doing this, it should be at least acknowledged to the public for questions and things going around. ” Bennett also commented, “It doesn’t mean that we’re going to sell the boat. It means that we’re looking at hopefully strengthening the boat, and being a partner with a stronger group of other hospitals who are having similar struggles.”

The estimate of the time of due diligence for the exploratory phase for the two hospitals was four to five months.