Deaconess Medical Center in Spokane, Wash., has severed its 17-year partnership stake with Inland Northwest Health Services, according to a Spokesman-Review report.
Deaconess will now simply be a customer of INHS as part of the settlement of a lawsuit. The suit, brought by INHS, accused the hospital of breaching contracts and bad faith dealing when the hospital declined to pay disputed bills. Details of the settlement were not released, as both parties said they were restricted by confidentiality agreements, according to the report.
Deaconess was a co-founder of the non-profit INHS in the mid-1990s, but its sale to for-profit Community Health Systems in 2008 complicated the collaboration between the two entities.
Also, as part of the settlement — which the parties hailed as “mutually beneficial” — the governing board of INHS will undergo reorganization. The board will now be dominated by Providence Health Care, also based in Spokane. The remaining three out of eight members will be appointed by Spokane’s Empire Health Foundation.
Read the Spokesman-Review report on Deaconess Medical Center.
Read about other hospital transactions:
