The University's Hershey Medical Center has expanded its collaborative efforts, bringing Carlisle Hospital into a partnership that already includes Holy Spirit Hospital.

"It provides another partner in an alliance," said C. McCollister Evarts, senior vice president for health affairs and dean of the College of Medicine.

The collaboration would reduce costs by allowing the hospitals to avoid duplicating certain services and to streamline information systems and communication systems, Evarts said.

In November 1993 the medical center announced plans for a $22 million budget reduction and by September 1994, more than $37 million had been cut from the center's budget. Many of the reductions were made by eliminating positions and cutting back excess spending, prompting changes such as buying equipment in bulk.

Evarts said there is a strong possibility that there will be more of these types of local and regional collaborations in the future, although he named no specific hospitals.

One aspect of the collaborations may allow patients who need services that are not available at one of the hospitals, but are available at Hershey, to be referred to the medical center for treatment there.

The agreement may also allow University medical students an opportunity to get involved in primary care at Carlisle Hospital in the future, Evarts said.

The agreement is similar to the existing partnership between Holy Spirit Hospital and the Hershey Medical Center, he said, but the process of bringing Carlisle Hospital into the collaboration is still in the early stages.

Cindy Small, director of public relations at Carlisle Hospital, said the exact projects that it will be involved in have not been decided yet.

"What we haven't decided is what areas we will do joint projects in," she said.

A planning council representing all three hospitals will name task forces during the next several months to decide how they will be working with each other, Small said.

Among the areas that will be examined are clinical and nonclinical support services, such as hospice, home-care and primary-care centers. Medical and nursing education and research will also be examined, she said.

The agreement to enter into the collaboration was finalized on Jan. 18.

"We were looking to see what would be the best collaboration for us," Small said. At this same time the medical center and Holy Spirit Hospital were looking to expand their collaborative efforts.

The existing collaboration between the medical center and Holy Spirit Hospital was first announced in July 1994 at the University Board of Trustees meeting in Wilkes-Barre.