Cleveland-based University Hospitals and Parma (Ohio) Community General Hospital have signed a letter of intent to merge, making it the second transaction in the past two weeks for UH.
At the end of June, UH and EMH Healthcare, a three-hospital system based in Elyria, Ohio, signed a deal to merge. The deal with Parma Hospital would add the 332-bed hospital to the UH health system. If the EMH Healthcare and Parma Hospital transactions are both finalized, UH would have 12 acute-care hospitals. UH's main competitor, Cleveland Clinic, currently has eight acute-care hospitals in northeast Ohio, as well as its main academic medical center.
The independent Parma Hospital said it chose to partner with UH because the system was "most compatible with…our mission to provide the highest quality of personalized healthcare to out patients and the communities we serve," said Terrence Deis, president and CEO of Parma Hospital, in a news release. He also said remaining as an independent hospital would be difficult in the current environment due to increasing challenges and cost pressures.
Due diligence is expected to take several months, and UH and Parma Hospital officials expect to reach a definitive agreement by the end of 2013. Financial details were not disclosed.
More Articles on Hospital Transactions:
Tri-City, Fallbrook Healthcare Districts Ink Joint Powers Agreement
NewYork-Presbyterian Completes Downtown Hospital Merger
Merger Planned Between Covenant Health, Cumberland Medical Center