Samaritan Health executives schedule town hall meetings in Lincoln City and Newport on proposed merger

By the Lincoln Chronicle staff

The president and chief executive officer of Samaritan Health Services is hitting the road to publicly explain its plans to merge with a larger hospital system from Washington state.

Samaritan, the dominant healthcare provider in Lincoln, Benton and Linn counties, announced Oct. 22 it plans to merge with the much larger MultiCare Health System of Tacoma.

Samaritan has more than 5,000 employees, including 620 clinicians. In Lincoln County, Samaritan employs 841 people, has standalone hospitals in Newport and Lincoln City and clinics in Newport, Lincoln City, Depoe Bay, Waldport and Toledo.

MultiCare Health is also a nonprofit and operates 13 hospitals in Washington, mostly in the Puget Sound region, and more than 300 clinics and urgent care locations. It also has hospitals in Spokane and Puyallup. It is MultiCare’s first purchase of a health system in Oregon.

Samaritan said its chief executive officer Marty Cahill and other executives will hold one-hour town hall meetings in the five major communities it serves to help explain the merger. There will also be a final meeting online in December.

Samaritan said Cahill, who has not been available to the public or the press since announcing the merger, will give “detailed presentations about the planned MultiCare affiliation and have the opportunity to ask questions during an open question and answer session.”

The two health care systems said last month they expect the merger – which has to be approved by Oregon regulators – to be completed in spring or summer of next year. When the deal is completed, Samaritan said last month it would continue to operate under its own name “with MultiCare’s logo added as the supporting logo.”

“This partnership represents the next evolution of Samaritan’s journey — a critical step that will allow them to move from surviving to thriving and continue serving our communities for generations to come,” Samaritan said in a statement announcing the sessions.

Registration is required for the events and seating is limited at each in-person event. To register or learn more, visit samhealth.org/Affiliation.

The two coastal sessions are:

• Lincoln City: Monday, Nov. 17, 5:30-6:30 p.m. in the Lincoln City Community Center Multipurpose Room, 2150 N.E. Oar Place; and
• Newport: Monday, Dec. 1, 5:30-6:30 p.m., Samaritan Center for Health Education, 740 S.W. Ninth St.

Other meetings are:

• Lebanon: Wednesday, Nov. 12, 6-7 p.m., Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital, 525 N. Santiam Hwy.;
• Corvallis: Tuesday, Nov. 18, 5:30-6:30 p.m., Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center, conference rooms A/B;.
• Albany: Monday, Nov. 24, 5:30-6:30 p.m., Samaritan Albany General Hospital, 1046 Sixth Ave. S.W., Albany; and
• Online: Thursday, Dec. 11, noon to 1 p.m.: A virtual forum via Microsoft Teams. A link will be provided upon registration and recording will available at samhealth.org/Affiliation after the event.