Heartland Whole Health Institute hopes $700M partnership makes national impact

Five years ago, Alice Walton founded the Heartland Whole Health Institute.

Walter Harris, president and CEO of the Heartland Whole Health Institute, says the $700 million partnership between Mercy and the Alice L. Walton Foundation could have a national impact.

Walton, the daughter of Walmart founder Sam Walton, created Heartland, based in Bentonville, Arkansas, with designs on expanding access to healthcare. Walter Harris, the president and CEO of Heartland, says Walton is concerned that too many can’t afford the cost of care and they’re not getting the preventive care they need to avoid serious and costly conditions.

That’s why Harris is so enthusiastic about Mercy, Heartland and the Alice L. Walton Foundation teaming up on a $700 million initiative to transform healthcare. The Cleveland Clinic is also playing an important role in the partnership as part of an effort to expand cardiac care.

Leaders of the initiative say they are going to expand healthcare services and opportunities across northwest Arkansas, a fast-growing region that is lacking in specialty care. But Harris tells Chief Healthcare Executive® that he hopes the collaboration will produce successes that can be replicated nationally.

“We believe that if this is done well in the region, it impacts an influence on the national landscape and changing of healthcare,” Harris says.

He says Walton is passionate about tackling big challenges in healthcare, including cost and quality, and Harris says she wants this partnership to help devise solutions beyond the region.

“She believes that the cost of healthcare has skyrocketed in a way that most folks who need it can't afford it,” Harris says. “She believes there's a lack of access in greater numbers … And she believes the quality of healthcare for the price of healthcare are not in balance.”

Mercy and the foundation are each committing $350 million over the next 30 years in the partnership. They are looking to build a new cardiac center on Mercy's campus in Rogers, Arkansas.

Steve Mackin, president and CEO of Mercy, says expanding telehealth options for both primary and specialty care will help patients get the care they need.

Steve Mackin, president and CEO of Mercy, says a big component of the effort will be expanding telehealth services to make it easier to provide care for those who don’t have easy access to a clinic. He says Mercy has 10 years of experience in delivering virtual care, and that includes primary care and specialty care.

“We've cut our teeth in providing virtual care services to medically complex, chronically ill patients,” Mackin says.

Harris says that the organizations have the ingredients to expand care and set models for the rest of the country.

“We believe that the model that Steve is leading as a visionary, and Alice is leading as a visionary, impacts the national landscape of healthcare in a way that's different,” Harris says.

Mercy, based in St. Louis, Missouri, opened a four-story, $54 million virtual care center in 2015. Since then, the center has offered care to thousands of patients, helping them manage complex conditions.

Alice Walton visited Mercy’s virtual care center and it made an impression, Harris says. She sees Mercy’s experience in telehealth, and expanding more access in Arkansas, could also be the blueprint for other organizations around the country.

“She feels that virtual (care) and technology is yet another way out of the healthcare crisis we're in right now,” Harris says.

Harris also points out another key component of the initiative: The Alice L. Walton School of Medicine. She announced the plans to build the new medical school in 2021, and the plans call for welcoming its first class of students in 2025.

Harris says the goal of the new medical school isn’t just in training physicians in treating diseases. He says the school will help aspiring physicians to stay healthy as they undergo the rigors of training for a career in medicine.

“We're training doctors to do self-care as well as to take care of patients. And when you have a balanced doc, you have balanced patient interactions,” Harris says.

Harris says in the long run, the development of the medical school is going to be an important component in the partnership.

“What they teach at the medical school, Steve and our partners will actually be activating it, in the delivery system,” Harris says. “And so that begins the nucleus of change is where you start with training the docs. And so it's an important piece of it.”

Heartland is going to be looking at ways to make better care more available, Harris says.

“The institute really is about probing and prodding and testing things out to see how things work,” he says.

In addition to expanding primary and specialty care options and developing more virtual solutions, Mackin says the partnership also will explore more logical payment models for the delivery of healthcare.

“How do we come together to really influence future payment, and how to make healthcare not only accessible, but the payment models logical to consumers, logical to employers,” Mackin says. “And that's work that I think will have ahead of us, that will be important.”