October 2, 2012

Mr. and Mrs. John Smith
123 Main Street
San Antonio, Texas 54321

Dear John and Betty,

On September 7, 2012, The University of Texas System Board of Regents unanimously authorized The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio to finalize an agreement with Vanguard Health Systems — owner of the Baptist Hospitals in San Antonio, as well as other hospitals and health care facilities across multiple states — and The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), the nation’s top-ranked children’s hospital. The agreement will lead to the creation of a children’s health care network across South Texas anchored by a new, state-of-the-art, comprehensive academic children’s hospital in the South Texas Medical Center.

Leaders at the UT Health Science Center spent months closely examining potential partnerships with a view to maximizing two goals: (1) to provide outstanding care for children of San Antonio and South Texas through a network anchored by a superb tertiary hospital with the potential for national recognition; and (2) to further enhance and expand our pediatric training programs — helping to alleviate the shortage of pediatric subspecialists in our city and region — and develop new treatment approaches and cures for childhood diseases, particularly those that are more prevalent in South Texas.

We are confident the path we have chosen is the best for the children of San Antonio and South Texas for these reasons:

• Over ninety per cent of pediatric care is delivered in a non-hospital setting. The regional pediatric care network — established in conjunction with the children’s hospital — will provide top-level preventive, primary, urgent and specialty care throughout the region, close to children’s homes, regardless of their parents’ ability to pay.


• The new hospital will be specifically designed to deliver the latest care for children — especially those with complex medical needs — and, together with the pediatric care network, provide the best research and training facilities to create the future of children’s health care.


• The new hospital will be in a location that harnesses the best talent in the city in children’s health care and children’s health care research, giving us the best academic environment for recruiting and retaining the nation’s top subspecialists and training the next generation of pediatric care givers. It will synergize with existing institutions in the medical center such as the Greehey Children’s Cancer Research Institute and the South Texas Research Facility, both of which are already engaged in research in diseases that affect children.

Vanguard Health Systems, through Baptist Hospitals, have continued the commitment to the health and well-being of San Antonio and South Texas that Baptist has had since 1903. This commitment is now bolstered even further by the partnership with The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. CHOP will provide the intellectual and managerial skills that they have developed over their more than 150-year existence — including a state-of-the-art electronic medical record system — to enhance our physicians’ ability to develop this network and tertiary hospital. Vanguard will provide access to the capital markets so that no taxpayer dollars are spent in building these facilities. The network and the new children’s hospital will operate on an open-staff model, benefiting from the talents of faculty physicians from your UT Health Science Center, as well as those of community doctors from across San Antonio and South Texas. That means, most often, children will remain in their own community for their care.

We understand that there is intense community interest in this issue, as there should be. We at the Health Science Center welcome any questions or opportunities to share our vision of this historic step for our region’s children. Please call my office at 210-567-2050 to schedule a conversation.

Sincerely,

Kenneth L. Kalkwarf, DDS, MS