Representatives of Billings Clinic Regional Care have taken the first steps in acquiring Trinity Health Hospital in Minot, North Dakota, in addition to having already added Missoula Community Medical Center to its healthcare network in January 2015.

Chief Medical Officer of Billings Clinic, Dr. Randall Gibb, said the first step was taken on Wednesday, June 10 for Trinity to join Billings Clinic's Joint Venture.

"Today, we signed a letter of intent to explore the possibility of Trinity Health System to come into the Billings Clinic Regionalcare Joint Venture," Gibb said. "Over the last six months our joint venture and Trinity have been engaging in preliminary discussions to see if that would be a good fit for each organization."

Gibbs explained why the two entities would be complementary to each other.

"Facing healthcare right now is a term we call population health,' he said. "What we really have to do as physicians and healthcare entities is to develop collaborative teamworks and partnerships across health systems. Because, when you reach a certain level you are able to provide for the patient population in such a way that there are advantages across the regional landscape. By adding a very similar healthcare system such as Trinity, along with Community Medical Center in Missoula, that we could extrapolate those practices to benefit the patients of North Dakota."

The transaction is expected to close prior to the end of 2015.

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