![\"\"](\"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Lehigh-regional-300x237.jpg\" "\\"Lehigh")
The 88-bed Lehigh Regional Medical Center\u00a0will be sold later this year to a California-based health care company known for acquiring financially struggling hospitals, the hospital’s owners announced Monday.<\/p>\nThe 88-bed Lehigh Regional Medical Center\u00a0will be sold later this year to a California-based health care company known for acquiring financially struggling hospitals, the hospital’s owners announced Monday.<\/p>\n
Franklin, Tennessee-based Community Health Systems expects the sale of the Lehigh Acres hospital to Prime Healthcare Services Inc.\u00a0to close sometime in the fourth quarter. The financial terms of the deal were not released.<\/p>\n
Lehigh Regional\u00a0reported\u00a0nearly $4.2 million in losses last year, according to the state.<\/p>\n
The CHS statement reads in full: “Community Health Systems, Inc.\u00a0announced today that subsidiaries of the Company have executed a definitive agreement to sell substantially all of the assets of 88-bed Lehigh Regional Medical Center in\u00a0Lehigh Acres, Florida, along with related outpatient services, to subsidiaries of Prime Healthcare Services, Inc. The divestiture is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2015, subject to customary regulatory approvals and closing conditions.<\/p>\n
The Company does not expect the divestiture to have a meaningful impact on financial operations. Following the divestiture of Lehigh Regional Medical Center, Community Health Systems affiliates will continue to operate 25 hospitals in Florida.”<\/p>\n
CHS, one of the nation’s largest hospital operators, acquired Lehigh Regional as part of its $7.6 billion takeover\u00a0of Naples-based\u00a0Health Management Associates\u00a0in 2013.<\/p>\n
Ontario, California-based\u00a0Prime Healthcare\u00a0has agreed to hire “substantially all employees”\u00a0to their existing positions and pay when the buyout is complete, with recognition of employee seniority. The company also said it plans no changes to current physician privileges.<\/p>\n
Prime Healthcare owns 34 acute-care hospitals in 10 states. It\u00a0bills itself as a company that “rescues financially distressed hospitals, turning them into thriving community assets and providing uninterrupted access to care.” It also\u00a0claims that it has never sold or closed a hospital.\u00a0This would be its first\u00a0Florida property.<\/p>\n
The Los Angeles Times, which called company founder Prem Reddy \u00a0“one of the most powerful \u2014 and polarizing \u2014 figures in health care,”\u00a0reported earlier this year<\/a>\u00a0that Prime\u00a0backed out of a deal to buy six struggling hospitals after clashing with state regulators over conditions of the sale. That case is now headed to court,\u00a0according to news reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n Prime Heath care spokeswoman\u00a0Andrea Eisenmenger did not answer detailed questions about the buyout or future plans for hospital staffing and services.<\/p>\n Instead, she said in an email that the company would employ “operational efficiency, investments in technology and improvements, sharing best practices with evidence based medicine, physician-led management and economies” to achieve Lehigh Regional’s financial health.<\/p>\n For-profit\u00a0Lehigh Regional operates the only acute-care hospital in Lee County not controlled by the public\u00a0Lee Memorial Health System.<\/p>\n Lee Memorial has discussed expanding outpatient services to the Lehigh Acres area, but has not yet settled on firm plans. CEO Jim Nathan said Monday that the health system will likely try to work with the new owners\u00a0on health coverage.<\/p>\n “Through the years, Lee Memorial Health System has collaborated with Lehigh Regional on transfers, EMS protocols, and providing specialized services,” Nathan said in an email. \u00a0“We look forward to meeting the new owners and finding ways to build upon that relationship to improve efficiency and enhance the quality of care in the community.”<\/p>\n The hospital also has among the region’s lowest scores for “patient satisfaction,” according to federal surveys. It earned one out of five stars for overall patient experience, the lowest score for any hospital in Lee or Collier County.<\/p>\n Only 50 percent of patients said they would definitely recommend the hospital to others. The average for all other Lee and Collier hospitals for this measure is 71.6 percent.<\/p>\n Those ratings aside, the Joint Commission, the hospital’s accrediting agency, cited the hospital in 2013 as a “Top Performer” when it comes to heart attacks, heart failure, pneumonia and surgical care.<\/p>\n “Our hospital has a long-standing tradition of providing personalized care and quality healthcare services for patients,” said Lehigh Regional’s interim CEO, Tom Marshall,\u00a0in that\u00a0statement. “All of our caregivers are committed to service for the individuals who come to us for care and our broader community. An affiliation with Prime Healthcare provides opportunities to build on our history of service and success.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The 88-bed Lehigh Regional Medical Center\u00a0will be sold later this year to a California-based health care company known for acquiring financially struggling hospitals, the hospital’s owners announced Monday. Franklin, Tennessee-based… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":37085,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,32],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37084"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}