WellSpan Health has added 131-bed Evangelical Community Hospital in Lewisburg, Pa., to its network.
The addition, announced July 8, brings York, Pa.-based WellSpan's hospital count to nine.
WellSpan and Evangelical Community Hospital signed a definitive agreement to combine in February. At that time, Evangelical Community Hospital CEO Kendra Aucker told local news outlets that although the hospital has operated as an independent community hospital for nearly 100 years, its aging patient population and growing costs made that model unsustainable.
Now named WellSpan Evangelical Community Hospital, the facility employs 1,900 individuals and has more than 170 employed and non-employed physicians on staff. The hospital is the only one in Central Pennsylvania's Susquehanna River Valley to have earned five stars from CMS, WellSpan noted. It also underwent an EHR migration to Epic, completed in 2022.
Ms. Aucker is now serving as senior vice president of WellSpan's new North Region and president of WellSpan Evangelical Community Hospital.
"Our top priority has always been to preserve a vibrant healthcare system close to home," she said in the news release about the combination with WellSpan. "We're excited for this opportunity to share expertise, research, and resources in new and mutually-beneficial ways."
In recent years, Danville, Pa.-based Geisinger pursued a partial acquisition of Evangelical Community Hospital. The FTC challenged the deal in 2020, saying that it would reduce incentives for Geisinger and Evangelical Community Hospital to compete against each other. A year later, the health system and independent hospital reached an agreement in which Geisinger maintained a minority investment in the hospital.
The addition is but one page of WellSpan's expansion playbook for 2024. The health system is also building three new microhospitals over the next two years in partnership with Emerus, a microhospital development firm based in San Antonio, Texas.