Trevor Fetter, CEO of Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare, has provided a few more details about the deal between Brookwood Medical Center in Birmingham, Ala., a subsidiary of Tenet, and Birmingham-based Baptist Health System.
In December 2014, Baptist Health and Brookwood signed an exclusive, non-binding letter of intent to form a jointly owned company.
Through the joint venture, Baptist Health's four hospitals and Brookwood would come together to form a new organization with 1,700 licensed beds, 7,300 employees and roughly 1,500 affiliated physicians.
In an earnings call last week covering Tenet's financial results for the fourth quarter of 2014, Mr. Fetter shed some light on the deal and the approach being taken for the transaction.
Baptist Health's hospitals were not available for purchase, and Mr. Fetter indicated a joint venture was the only viable structure for a deal.
"If you want to end up owning either a piece or the majority of really high-quality assets that are going to be transformative in a market, that's going to increasingly require a (joint venture) approach," he said, according to a transcript of the earnings call posted on SeekingAlpha.
Even though it wasn't an option for Tenet to fully purchase Baptist Health's hospitals, the joint venture allows Tenet to expand its market presence in Birmingham.
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