The physicians of Camino Medical Group, the Palo Alto Medical Clinic and the Santa Cruz Medical Clinic have approved a plan to merge into a single physician group effective Jan. 1, 2008, the Palo Alto Medical Foundation announced last week.

All three groups have affiliations with the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, but currently have separate legal agreements. The groups wanted to become one entity for the purpose of "providing services to patients of the Palo Alto Medical Foundation," said Richard Slavin, CEO of Camino Medical Group. A name has not yet been selected for the new group, he said.

The newly merged physician groups will become the second-largest physician medical group in California after Kaiser, Slavin said.

The Palo Alto Medical Foundation is part of Sutter Health, and operates facilities in Alameda, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties. The consolidated organization will have approximately 850 physicians and more than 3,000 support staff.

— Susan Hong

Are you receiving Express, our free daily e-mail edition? See a sample and sign-up for Express.