USC and Palmetto Health are in talks to merge their outpatient clinics in a move that would affect 1,300 employees at the two institutions.
Details about the clinical group, which would be freestanding, are being negotiated, so information about its name and costs aren’t yet available. A timeline for the merger isn’t set, but the two have had a partnership for decades.
The idea has been in the works for nearly two years, USC President Harris Pastides said.
The new group will be led by the School of Medicine’s executive dean, a role that’s currently vacant. A search to fill the job is expected to take several months.
University spokesman Wes Hickman said the new group would open more opportunities for medical school students to get clinical practice.
Forming one combined group will give it more leverage in negotiations with insurance companies and spread USC’s clinical reach outside of downtown Columbia, Provost Michael Amiridis said. And it will make growing easier, because Palmetto Health is more likely than USC to build new buildings.
“In this business, there is strength in numbers,” Amiridis said.
Pastides said he expects other schools to pursue similar partnerships in the coming years, especially as the health care industry remains in flux.
“If there’s an area within the university and even within society where there is murkiness and there are probably sharks in the water, it’s health care,” Pastides said.