Health systems are pursuing joint ventures and service line partnerships in multiple sectors this year, including outpatient surgery, behavioral health, post-acute care, physician services, urgent care and hospital-at-home programs.
In the last four months, St. Louis-based Ascension — which comprises 140 hospitals — has formed or expanded joint ventures in several key areas as it aims to boost its margins, improve its acute care assets with more complex needs and accelerate growth through ancillary services and ambulatory networks.
Ascension Seton in Austin, Texas, formed a joint venture with Franklin, Tenn.-based Acadia Healthcare that aims to expand behavioral health capacity in Texas.
The partnership will expand Acadia's operations at Cross Creek Hospital, as well as the number of inpatient behavioral beds available in Austin. Acadia will build a 106-bed expansion of the acute behavioral hospital — expected to be completed in late 2024 — that will increase the total licensed bed count to 196. The joint venture hospital will be in close proximity to Ascension Seton hospitals and serve as a training site for students, residents and fellows from Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin.
Acadia has 21 joint venture partnerships with health systems, including two with Ascension: it opened Ascension Saint Thomas Behavioral Health Hospital in Nashville, Tenn., in 2020.
"This joint venture will build upon our expertise while increasing the number of behavioral health beds and other behavioral health services available to patients throughout the region," Ascension Texas President and CEO Andy Davis said in a news release.
Detroit-based Henry Ford Health and Ascension Michigan are also forming a joint venture, in which Henry Ford would fold Ascension's care sites in the southeastern region of the state under its brand.
The joint venture organization, led by Henry Ford President and CEO Bob Riney, will employ about 50,000 team members and span more than 550 sites of care, including 10 Ascension Michigan hospitals. Ascension Michigan's hospitals in the southwest and northern regions of the state will remain part of Ascension's national health ministry.
All five of Henry Ford's acute care hospitals and other care facilities and assets — including Health Alliance Plan — are included in the partnership.
"We are united in our shared values, cultures, and commitment to those we serve," Carol Schmidt, ministry market executive of Ascension Michigan, said. "Together, we will make significant strides in improving the health of Michigan communities through unparalleled investments in critical community health initiatives, as well as contributing secure, high paying jobs and other related employment."
In the South, Brentwood, Tenn.-based Lifepoint Health and Ascension Saint Thomas are entering a joint venture, in which the two organizations will jointly own Highpoint Health, a four-hospital system owned by Lifepoint.
The joint venture aims to combine the health systems' clinical expertise, best practices and providers to improve access to clinical programs and specialty care in the area. Hospitals and care sites included in the partnership will be co-branded with Ascension Saint Thomas and majority-owned and operated by Lifepoint.
This is the second joint venture for Lifepoint and Ascension Saint Thomas, which also jointly own Ascension Saint Thomas Rehabilitation Hospital in Nashville.
"The positive impact we can make together to build and expand our clinical programs will have a multiplying effect for the health of our region and the communities we serve," Ascension Saint Thomas President and CEO Fahad Tahir said.
Ascension Saint Thomas Home Health transitioned to Compassus — an integrated home-based care provider —- as part of another partnership.
With the population of Tennesseans ages 60 and older expected to increase by more than 300,000 over the next 10 years, Ascension Saint Thomas believes that more home-based care options will be needed.
The system will work with Compassus to administer services that its home health line previously provided in Hickman, Benton, Humphreys, Lewis, Williamson, Maury, Dickson and Perry counties.
"To meet our mission, we partner with organizations that have the depth and expertise to provide leadership in specific areas of focus such as home health, long-term care, acute rehabilitation, physical therapy and others," Mr. Tahir said in a news release. "Compassus is mission compatible and offers that depth in home health that we were seeking."