Baylor Health Care System, Scott & White to Merge

Two already big Texas hospital systems are merging to form the largest nonprofit integrated delivery system in the state, and possibly the southwest.

Dallas-based Baylor Health Care System and Temple-based Scott & White Healthcare announced late Friday afternoon that both systems have signed a letter of intent to merge.

The new organization will be known as Baylor Scott & White Health, said Joel Allison, president and CEO of Baylor, who will also be CEO of the new organization. Scott & White's CEO, Robert Pryor, MD, will be COO of Baylor Scott & White Health.

Citing the future of healthcare, Allison said in a teleconference that the merger represents "two strong partners coming together truly creating a new model of healthcare delivery that really focuses on the patient, [on] population health management."

The deal will join together two of the most well-known hospital systems in Texas with Baylor dominating the north Texas market and Scott & White in central Texas.

Allison says the two healthcare systems have been in talks for a little over a year.