KALAMAZOO — A Kalamazoo medical center is partnering with Borgess Health.

Westside Family Medical Center, a primary care and urgent care practice, 6565 W. Main St., Kalamazoo, has chosen to fully integrate with Borgess Health to better serve its patients and community.

Westside Family Medical Center is composed of a primary care practice and an urgent care center serving patients in Kalamazoo for nearly 50 years. It has nine physicians and six advanced practice providers. It has approximately 35,000 patients.

“We have partnered with Borgess in so many ways since 1971 that this was the logical next step,” said Amanda Williams, MPA, practice administrator, in making the announcement. “We know this will provide excellent quality and easy continuity of care for our patients when they need emergency or specialty care. We are grateful to become part of such a respected health system, with such a strong history of quality and innovation, as Borgess Health.”

“We are proud to welcome the employees of Westside Family Medical Center into the Borgess family,” said President and CEO of Borgess Health, Kathy Young. “We have enjoyed a strong relationship working with them for so many years, and look forward to this being a seamless transition for their employees and patients.”

Westside has been partnering with Borgess Health since 1971 on a number of quality and patient- centered issues. In 1989, that partnership became more cohesive with the introduction of Borgess Lab and Diagnostics units at Westside.

Westside Family Medical Center’s name and location will not change. Because Westside and Borgess will share the same electronic patient record system, patients from Westside who utilize Borgess for specialty or emergency care will find their records in place, expediting their care and ensuring the accuracy of their medical history. Westside patients will soon be able to use InQuicker, the self-scheduling service app for Borgess practices.

The full transition is expected to take approximately one year.

Borgess Health is a part of Ascension. In Michigan, Ascension operates 15 hospitals and hundreds of related healthcare facilities that together employ approximately 26,000 associates.

Across the state, Ascension provided almost $230 million in community benefit and care of persons living in poverty in FY2017. Serving Michigan for more than 140 years, Ascension is a faith-based healthcare organization dedicated to transformation through innovation across the continuum of care, according to Ascension officials.

As the largest nonprofit health system in the United States and the world’s largest Catholic health system, Ascension is committed to delivering compassionate, personalized care to all, with special attention to persons living in poverty and those most vulnerable. In 2017, Ascension provided more than $1.8 billion in care of persons living in poverty and other community benefit programs.

Ascension includes approximately 165,000 associates and 40,000 aligned providers. Ascension’s Healthcare Division operates more than 2,600 sites of care – including 153 hospitals and more than 50 senior living facilities – in 22 states and the District of Columbia, while its Solutions Division provides a variety of services and solutions including physician practice management, venture capital investing, investment management, biomedical engineering, facilities management, clinical care management, information services, risk management and contracting through Ascension’s own group purchasing organization.