BLOOMINGTON - Two competing outpatient surgery centers would come under the same ownership if plans to merge Bloomington-Normal Healthcare Surgery Center and Eastland Medical Plaza SurgiCenter are approved, The Pantagraph learned Friday.

"It's our goal that the business combination will allow us to deliver higher quality and more efficient patient care," said Dr. Edward Colloton, executive director of Bloomington-Normal Healthcare, 2100 Fort Jesse Road, Normal.

Eastland will acquire shares of Bloomington-Normal Healthcare but details are still being worked out, said John Zell, chairman of the Eastland SurgiCenter managing board. The combined business will be a partner of OSF St. Joseph Medical Center.

Eastland - on the St. Joseph campus in Bloomington - is a 50-50 joint venture of St. Joseph and 24 physician-owners. Bloomington-Normal Healthcare is 75 percent owned by 28 physician-members and 25 percent owned by St. Joseph affiliate, OSF Saint Francis Inc., Colloton said.

OSF acquired a minority interest in Bloomington-Normal Healthcare several years ago and there are about 10 physicians who are investors in both surgery centers. Zell said informal discussions have been happening for awhile and had nothing to do with the opening earlier this year of the Ireland Grove Center for Surgery in Bloomington.

BroMenn Regional Medical Center spokesman Eric Alvin doesn't anticipate that an Eastland/Bloomington-Normal Healthcare merger would have a major effect on BroMenn or its outpatient surgery center, T-COM (The Center for Outpatient Medicine), 2502 E. Empire St., Bloomington.

"We've known that they have been working together closely for some time, so this is not unexpected," Alvin said.

Even so, an acquisition could be the second merger in Twin City health care in the next year. OSF Healthcare System revealed last month that it is in talks to acquire Carle Clinic-Bloomington/Normal. Zell said the mergers aren't related.

Bloomington-Normal Healthcare and Eastland SurgiCenter have negotiated a nonbinding letter of intent to explore the feasibility of merger.

"There was overwhelming support from the membership," Colloton said of Bloomington-Normal Healthcare physicians.

Next, acquisition terms will be finalized and approved before the matter goes to the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board.

Zell expects the merger to take effect by March 31.

Colloton and Zell said the surgery centers are doing well financially. Eastland's physicians performed about 7,000 surgeries in the past year and Bloomington-Normal Healthcare doctors did about 2,500 procedures, Zell and Colloton said. Surgeries included orthopedic; ear, nose and throat; urology; podiatric; plastic and obstetrics/gynecology.

A merger could allow each surgery center to specialize in certain surgeries, reducing duplication of services and equipment and improving efficiency, Colloton and Zell said. In addition, purchasing and scheduling could be merged.

Each center has about 25 employees.

"We're not anticipating any significant shift in employment," Colloton said.