Grand Rapids — The Boards of Directors of Spectrum Health and Lakeland Health announced Wednesday that the two organizations intend to integrate.

Both organizations see the value of coming together to focus on high quality care and improving the health of our communities. Together they will be pursuing a definitive agreement and due diligence over the next few months. The agreement is expected to be finalized by Oct. 1.

“We have a long-standing relationship with Lakeland Health and admire their excellent clinical care, strong leadership team and commitment to the community,” said Richard C. Breon, Spectrum Health President & CEO. “Our board has spent the past year diligently focused on our growth and partnership strategy in the context of current and anticipated future trends in the industry, such as consumer-centric care and precision medicine. This integration brings benefits to both organizations in terms of improving affordability, quality and access. We are confident that with our aligned cultures and a shared focus on caring for our communities, we can achieve significant impact on health improvement.”

Lakeland Health is a comprehensive three-hospital health system serving southwestern Michigan with more than 4,000 employees and 450 providers. Lakeland Health would proceed as a division of Spectrum Health, retaining oversight by a local board of directors, local capital investment considerations, and local philanthropic efforts.

“We are excited about what our two organizations joining together will mean for our community. Lakeland’s number one priority has been to take great care of our friends and neighbors — the integration with Spectrum Health will provide an unprecedented opportunity to do that even better,” said Loren B. Hamel, MD, President and Chief Executive Officer of Lakeland Health. “The benefits of integration will be many. We see great value in sharing and standardizing our approaches to continuously improving the health care we provide, to enhancing the overall health of the communities we serve, to lowering the overall cost of care, and to make our organizations the best places to attract the best talent. Spectrum Health’s top tier performance, geographic proximity, and cultural similarity will make this a great partnership.”

“The Lakeland Board has been deliberate about understanding where health care is going and what it takes to succeed. The positive impact of size and scale have been topics of conversation at the board level for some time,” said Dan Hopp, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Lakeland Health. “The integration conversation with Spectrum Health to date has exceeded our expectations for a partner for providing health care services to our community. I have been impressed by the cultural fit Lakeland has with Spectrum Health – their commitment to innovation, employee relations, and quality aligns well with ours. Spectrum Health offers capacity beyond our ability to develop locally. Being part of a larger system will truly benefit our community.”

“In today’s dynamic health care industry, it’s exciting when two organizations can see the vision of being better together,” Dick DeVos, Chairman, Spectrum Health System Board of Directors said. “Spectrum Health and Lakeland Health realize that together we will strengthen and improve health outcomes for the people we serve. This integration ensures commitment to the community and an investment in continued access to best-in-class physicians and caregivers.”

Lakeland Health is a member of Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital Partners in Children’s Health and also has partnered with Spectrum Health Medical Group for specialty services, including cardiovascular care. These existing relationships have resulted in improvements in quality and access as well as financial savings and operational support for Lakeland Health through shared services.