Summary

February's Good Eggs breakfast featured CHI Franciscan CEO Ketul Patel.

Story

 Left to right: Federal Way Deputy Mayor Susan Honda, Federal Way City Councilmember Hoang Tran, Federal Way City Councilmember Mark Koppang, Federal Way Mayor Jim Ferrell, Pacific Mayor Leanne Guier, King County Councilmember Pete von Reichbauer, Covington Mayor Jeff Wagner, CHI Franciscan CEO Ketul Patel, Auburn City Councilmember Bob Baggett, Federal Way City Councilmember Linda Kochmar, Federal Way City Councilmember Lydia Assefa-Dawson.

CHI Franciscan CEO Ketul Patel joined King County Councilmember Pete von Reichbauer’s February “Good Eggs” breakfast at Twin Lakes Golf Club. The breakfast provided Patel an opportunity to update South King County community leaders and elected officials on the important work CHI Franciscan is doing for its patients and in the community, and discuss the future of the health care industry.

CHI Franciscan was founded in 1891 and is the largest health system in Washington with more than 12,000 employees and ten hospitals. Ketul discussed the importance of improving the operational efficiency of its hospitals in order to help control costs and lower costs for patients. A main driver for CHI Franciscan’s merger with CommonSpirit was projected cost savings of $2.4 billion over five years.

Moving forward, Ketul suggested that there will likely be more mergers in an attempt to realize cost savings. There are very few remaining independent hospitals. CHI Franciscan is also investing in the expansion of virtual care options that improve both the quality of and access to care. Lastly, Ketul discussed the important partnerships with Multi-Care that are improving access to behavioral health in South King County.