Tallahassee-based Florida State University and Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare have finalized core agreements that set the long-term framework for FSU Health, the university’s integrated academic health system for North Florida.
The agreements include lease and operating agreements and other definitive legal documents, including an academic and clinical framework covering Tallahassee Memorial Hospital and a planned FSU Health hospital in Panama City Beach, Fla., according to a Sept. 30 news release.
TMH will keep running day-to-day operations under the FSU Health brand. That includes Tallahassee Memorial Hospital, the future Panama City Beach hospital, TMH’s other clinical sites and its employed physician network, TMH Physician Partners. The deal keeps TMH’s existing charity care policy at both hospitals. It also creates a new governance structure that lets FSU nominate board candidates in Tallahassee and Panama City Beach.
“Today marks a defining step forward in our shared vision to build an academic health system that will serve our community and our state for generations to come,” FSU President Richard McCullough said in the release. “Through FSU Health, with Tallahassee Memorial Hospital as its clinical anchor, Florida State University is bringing together the people, expertise and resources needed to improve lives, expand access to advanced care and create new opportunities for medical education and research across North Florida and beyond.”
The agreements follow the transfer of city-owned hospital assets to FSU earlier this year. FSU Health plans to add graduate medical education programs in Tallahassee for trauma surgery, minimally invasive and bariatric surgery, and pulmonary and critical care medicine.
TMH operates a 772-bed acute care hospital in Tallahassee, a psychiatric hospital and five residency programs. FSU will open a 140,000-square-foot research building on the Tallahassee Memorial campus this fall.
