Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare operated 186 hospitals by the end of 2023, up from 179 in 2019. Meanwhile, two other large for-profit health systems — Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems and Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare — have trimmed the number of hospitals they operated over that span.
Those trajectories could continue in 2024. HCA closed its acquisition of Trinity Regional Hospital Sachse (Texas) from Sunland Medical Foundation on Feb. 1. That same day, Tenet completed the sale of three South Carolina hospitals to Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Novant Health and reached a definitive agreement to sell four hospitals in Southern California and their associated outpatient locations to Orange, Calif.-based UCI Health. On Feb. 29, Tenet announced it signed a definitive agreement to sell two more California hospitals to Roseville, Calif.-based Adventist Health.
CHS CEO Tim Hingtgen said during the company's Feb. 21 earnings call that it is evaluating interest for sales that could yield more than $1 billion in additional proceeds. CFO Kevin Hammons said on the call that the system anticipates one or more of these transactions could close within the calendar year. The system also has plans to sell two of its North Carolina hospitals to Novant Health, but the Federal Trade Commission sued to block the move in January. The case is pending in federal court.
Here is how the number of hospitals the three for-profit systems have operated have grown or shrunk over the past five years, according to regulatory filings. The figures are as of Dec. 31 of those years.
CHS
2019: 102
2020: 89
2021: 83
2022: 80
2023: 71
HCA
2019: 179
2020: 178
2021: 175
2022: 182
2023: 186
Tenet
2019: 65
2020: 65
2021: 60
2022: 61
2023: 61