An official with Cheyenne Regional Medical Center says a proposed management services agreement with a Colorado health care system will speed things up for patients who need certain types of specialized healthcare.

Phylis Sherard is the Vice-President for Population Health and Chief Strategy Officer at CRMC. She says most types of routine medical care are already available to patients at CRMC. But she says for those who need specialized care that is not immediately available in Cheyenne, having the agreement with UC Health will speed up the process considerably.

She says one reason is that the agreement might bring new healthcare services to the community that aren't currently available. But for highly specialized care the other advantage will be that medical care available through UC-Health will be more coordinated with CRMC than is currently the case, speeding up the availability of treatment.

She says that means local patients will be able to get the specialized treatment and get back home more quickly. Sherard also says it's important to understand that the agreement is not a sale because Laramie County will continue to own CRMC.

But she says the agreement will allow CRMC to take advantage of the skills and economies of scale that are available through UC-Health without giving up local control. Sherard says CRMC and UC-Health will spend the next couple of months or so working out details of an agreement.

She says if everything works out the agreement might be implemented by early 2018.

 

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