Description
Banner Health is a non-profit health system in the United States, based in Phoenix, Arizona. It operates 30 hospitals and several specialized facilities across 6 states. The health system is the largest employer in Arizona and one of the largest in the United States with over 50,000 employees.
The organization provides emergency and hospital care, hospice, long-term/home care, outpatient surgery, labs, rehabilitation services, pharmacies, and primary care. In early 2018, it reported assets of $11.6 billion and revenues of $7.8 billion for the previous year.
Banner Health was created in 1999 through a merger between Lutheran Health Systems, based in North Dakota, and Samaritan Health System, based in Phoenix, Arizona. In 2001, Banner sold its operations in Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Dakota and South Dakota, and made its sole headquarters in Phoenix.
Banner also operates a Medicare Advantage insurance plan in the valley referred to as University Care Advantage and an AHCCCS plan referred to as Banner University Family Care.
Banner Health has partnered with the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, one of the original three comprehensive cancer centers in the United States established by the National Cancer Act of 1971, and has built a $90 million cancer center in Gilbert, Arizona.
History
In 1999, two nonprofit entities Samaritan Health System (dating back to 1911) and Lutheran Health Systems (history dating back to 1938) merged, forming Banner Health. At the time the entity operated in 14 states and had around 22,000 employees.
In 2005, Banner closed the former Mesa Lutheran hospital and later converted it to office space at a cost of around $100 million.
In 2006 Banner Health launched a telemedicine program. The health system determined the telemonitoring saved 34,000 ICU days and close to 2,000 lives in 2013 based on APACHE II predicted length of stay and mortality rates.
In October 2006 Banner acquires the assets and staff, including 40 providers of Big Thompson Medical Medical Group in Loveland, Colorado.
In 2008, Banner Health selected Nextgen Healthcare as its partner for ambulatory EHR medical records at all of its outpatient facilities.
In October 2008, Banner acquired large specialty group "Arizona Medical Clinic" in the west valley and renamed this entity Banner Arizona Medical Clinic.
In August 2012, Banner embarked on a plan to rename and harmonize the names of its acquired medical clinics organized under Banner Medical Group. Clinics were renamed according to specialty across the entire system
In February 2014, Banner acquired Casa Grande Medical Center in Casa Grande, AZ
In June 2014, the University of Arizona Health Network (UAHN)and Banner Health launched a merger, pending Arizona Board of Regents approval to combine operations The merger finally took place in 2016. The new Banner division, Banner - University Medicine and its employed physician group, Banner - University Medical Group (BUMG) brought Banner Health into the forefront of academic medicine. As part of the deal, the former University of Arizona Medical Center and University of Arizona Medical Center - South Campus, in Tucson, AZ, were renamed Banner – University Medical Center Tucson and Banner – University Medical Center South, respectively. Banner Good Samaritan hospital in Phoenix was also renamed, to Banner – University Medical Center Phoenix, to reflect its new designation as the primary teaching hospital of the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix. To upgrade the aging infrastructure of all of these facilities, Banner Health pledged nearly US$1.5 billion to several major construction projects in Phoenix and Tucson.
In 2015, Banner relocated its headquarters from the Banner Good Samaritan Hospital campus (now known as Banner University Medical Center) to a tower at Central and Thomas Roads in Downtown Phoenix, Arizona. In the same year, it signed an agreement with Cerner to move all of its facilities including the clinics formerly on Nextgen to Cerner EHR. The move also includes staff sharing between Banner and Cerner to execute on the implementation.
In August 2016, Banner Health acquired the assets and staff of Urgent Care Extra's 32 Arizona urgent care facilities, hoping to grow the urgent care footprint to 50 clinics by 2017. Banner Health fell victim to a cyberattack and data breach that may have put the information of up to three million patients and employees at risk. This led to a class-action lawsuit which was settled in 2020. According to HIPAA Journal, this breach was the largest of any health care concern in 2016.
In April 2018, Banner submitted to an $18 million fine relating to billing and operational abnormalities relating to billing government programs for services In June 2018, the company completed the transition of the Tucson medical facilities conversion from Epic Systems EHR to the EHR used at their other entities, Cerner. The conversion was noted as challenging for the staff involved and cost approximately US$45 million.
In July 2020, Wyoming Medical Center agreed to join Banner Health.
