Healthy competition: St. Patrick, Community walk fine line on collaboration in Missoula, Montana

Lately, it’s been just about impossible to thumb through the newspaper without seeing advertisements targeting women from Missoula’s two hospitals.

Both hospitals now have centers that cater to women. But there’s more than just a desire to better serve women beneath those ads.

"It’s pretty simple," said Jeff Fee, chief executive officer of St. Patrick Hospital http://www.saintpatrick.org/ . "Women are the chief decision-makers when it comes to health care. They are more prone to seek medical care, and their decision seems to guide the rest of the family’s choices where health care is concerned."

It follows, then, that St. Pat’s and Community Medical Center http://www.communitymed.org/ are going to compete for women’s health care business.

By MICHAEL MOORE of the Missoulian

Full Story: http://missoulian.com/news/local/article_39f552c2-b625-11de-ad96-001cc4c03286.html