MORGANTOWN – A Pennsylvania-based hospital system has acquired Acuity Specialty Hospital of Morgantown – the hospital-within-a-hospital located inside Mon Health Medical Center – along with a joint-ownership interest in HealthWorks Rehab & Fitness, with facilities in Morgantown and seven other nearby towns.
Select Medical, out of Mechanicsburg, Pa. (near Harrisburg), announced the acquisitions Monday.
Acuity Specialty Hospital of Morgantown opened inside Mon Health Medical Center last August. It’s a 25-bed long-term acute care hospital ( LTACH) serving patients who have spent three or more days in a regular hospital intensive care unit or those who need prolonged mechanical ventilation lasting more than 96 hours.
This was employee-owned, North Carolina-based Acuity Healthcare’s fifth LTACH, joining facilities in Weirton and Wheeling, and in Atlantic City and Willingboro, N.J.
As of March 31, Select Medical operated 99 critical illness recovery hospitals (another term for LTACHS) in 28 states, 30 rehabilitation hospitals in 12 states, and 1,809 outpatient rehabilitation clinics in 37 states and the District of Columbia. Select Medical had combined operations in 46 states and the District of Columbia and employed more than 48,000 people.
The acquisition of Acuity brings Select’s LTACH count to 104. All five will be renamed Select Specialty Hospital
Tom Mullin, Select’s executive vice president and chief operating officer of specialty hospitals, said the company has wanted to expand into other markets complementary to their hospitals. It already has some assets and hospitals in the Pittsburgh area and one in southern West Virginia.
“It’s been years that we’ve been looking for the right hospitals to eventually open or acquire,” he said. They learned of potential availability of Acuity. Conversations led to tours and they determined it was a good opportunity to bring Acuity’s five hospitals into its network.
“We’re looking forward to getting them under the Select platform,” Mullin said. Once the transaction closes – sometime in the July-September quarter, they’ll send teams in to set up their EPIC electronic medical record system – right now it’s paper charts – and put their system-wide best practices in place.
In Morgantown, he said, “In the future there may be a need to add some more beds at that site.”
Acuity had a joint venture with Mon Health, serving as majority owner; and Select Specialty will also be a joint venture with Mon Health.
Mark Gilliam, chief administrative officer at Mon Health Medical Center, said, “Building out this long-term acute care hospital and providing advanced care access to the communities we serve has proven to be the right decision for our region. Acuity has been a great partner and the transition to Select should be seamless.”
The HealthWorks transaction is also a joint venture with Mon Health. The deal closed June 1, Select said.
Along with the original Morgantown site, HealthWorks has satellite facilities in Westover, Cheat Lake, Blacksville, Fairmont, and Smithfield and Waynesburg, Pa.
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