Community Health Systems (CHS) has shed numerous hospitals from its portfolio this year, as we have previously reported. Now the other shoe is dropping, as it has announced ongoing plans to grow its ASC portfolio.
In February, CHS affiliate Baldwin Health opened its de novo Specialty Surgery Center in Foley, Ala., which provides orthopedic surgery, gastroenterological surgery, pain management and colonoscopy procedures. Another de novo ASC opened in Birmingham, Ala.
Meanwhile, CHS said, a CHS subsidiary acquired a majority ownership interest this month in South Anchorage (Alaska) Surgery Center, which specializes in gastrointestinal and interventional pain procedures while adding surgical capacity for CHS affiliate Mat-Su Regional Medical Center in Palmer, Alaska.
With these transactions, CHS now counts 36 affiliated ASCs. Number 37, it says, will occur “soon,” as a CHS subsidiary recently signed definitive agreements to acquire a majority ownership interest in the freestanding Surgical Institute of Alabama (SIA) in Vestavia. According to CHS, SIA is Alabama’s largest multispecialty ASC, performing more than 8,000 neurospine, orthospine, orthopedics, total joint reconstruction, general, urology and pain management cases per year. It features six ORs, two procedure rooms, nine pre-op and nine post-acute beds.
The CHS-SIA transaction, expected to close in the second quarter, will find CHS affiliate Grandview Health with four ASCs, joining three others that are located on the campus of Grandview Medical Center: Birmingham Musculoskeletal Institute at Grandview Health, which opened this month, Grandview Urology Surgery Center and Grandview Endoscopy Center.
