UW Health Partnership

Working Together to Best Serve Our Patients and the Community
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UW Health, UnityPoint Health – Meriter and Quartz Health Solutions are deeply committed to greater choice in care and to providing the highest quality of care. In a rapidly changing healthcare landscape, we're committed to our vision for best serving our patients and members, and our communities well into the future.

Delivery of Care

The joint operating agreement (JOA) between UnityPoint Health – Meriter and UW Health formalized and expanded our collaboration in care for patients. We have a successful history of working together to provide the best possible care for patients in our community. We share best practices, resources, facilities and knowledge to meet the growing healthcare needs of south-central Wisconsin and to increase access to care within our two systems.

We have a shared goal to improve the health and well-being of the people of Madison and the region. We are dedicated to our values of compassion, excellence, innovation and integrity.

Our vision is to build on this history and shared experience by more formally partnering together.  Together, we'll share our knowledge, facilities and resources in integrating patient care. Through collaboration, we can eliminate clinical and financial red tape for patients and their families, and offer the community:

  • Greater access for patients where and when they need care, without duplicating costly investments in facilities
  • A smart, efficient delivery system that optimizes the best of both organizations
  • Enhanced coordination of care
  • Sharing of best practices that further elevate quality
  • Strengthening of our population health efforts

Health Plan

Quartz Health Solutions’ vision is to increase access to broader networks and create a more sustainable range of insurance products to meet the diverse needs of employers and members.

Our History

Nearly 50 years ago, the University of Wisconsin Department of Obstetrics Clinical Program and Residency Training moved to what was then Madison General Hospital (now UnityPoint Health - Meriter). As a result, UW Health never needed to build its own, separate labor and delivery unity, due to the relationship with Meriter for delivering babies in our region. 

Likewise, for decades now, our organizations have maintained multiple long-term arrangements for other UW Health residency programs and for some UW Health specialty services. 

Beginning in 1998, Meriter and UW Health developed various joint ventures designed to expand patients' access to high-quality preventive and specialty care, resulting in the Madison Surgery Center, Wisconsin Dialysis, Transformations Surgery Center, Wisconsin Sleep and Generations Fertility Care. 

In 2015, Meriter and UW Health launched a shared Pregnancy and Newborn Care program to provide coordinated perinatal, obstetric and neonatal services. It combined the strengths of academic medicine with the patient- and family-centered care of a community hospital, showing the benefits of a unified approach to care. 

In 2017, UnityPoint Health and UW Health entered into a Joint Operation Agreement (JOA) that paved the way for enhanced system of care alignment between Meriter and UW Health. The JOA allows us utilize our collective resources to the fullest and work together further to benefit the communities we serve. 

Our Vision

We have a proud tradition of having worked together for nearly 50 years to deliver excellent patient care.

We have a shared goal to improve the health and well-being of the people of Madison and the region. We are dedicated to our values of compassion, excellence, innovation and integrity.

Our vision is to build on this history and shared experience by more formally partnering together.  Together, we'll share our knowledge, facilities and resources in integrating patient care. Through potential collaboration, we can eliminate clinical and financial red tape for patients and their families, and offer the community:

  • Greater access for patients where and when they need care, without duplicating costly investments in facilities
  • A smart, efficient delivery system that optimizes the best of both organizations
  • Enhanced coordination of care
  • Sharing of best practices that further elevate quality
  • Strengthening of our population health efforts