Lincoln and some others in Mercer County think the alliance is best for the community. Stuart Coulter, for example, appreciates the fact that his doctor with the Genesis Heart Institute in Davenport is about an hour closer to his residence in Joy than a similar hospital facility in Peoria, Ill.
Before reaching its arrangement with Genesis, Mercer County had one from 2004 to ’06 with Quorum Health Resources of Brentwood, Tenn. Quorum provides management, consulting and educational services to its members. Most of Mercer County’s patients in need of a high level of care were referred to Peoria for treatment at that time.
The Genesis-Mercer County Hospital pact is not the only example of a large Quad-City hospital system aligning with a smaller hospital in the outlying region.