Al, you know you need to provide a link to these articles since your
credibility has spiraled (we want the real deal, not your HONEST opinion)!
I'll send this one for you:
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/business/16530043.htm
Here are the two prior announcements:
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/email/business/16526690.htm
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/business/special_packages/cf_biz/16527375.htm
Regards,
John Ellingsworth
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Penn Health System to buy Graduate
Graduate Hospital will become a rehabilitation and long-term acute-care
facility. Penn will run it in a venture with Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network.
By Josh Goldstein
Inquirer Staff Writer
The University of Pennsylvania Health System announced yesterday that it
would buy Graduate Hospital and convert it into a rehabilitation and long-term
acute-care facility.
Penn officials said the deal would free about 40 acute-care beds at its other
hospitals and expand research and training programs in rehabilitation
medicine.
"This will expand our ability to offer the finest rehabilitative care to a
greater number of patients," said Ralph W. Muller, chief executive officer of
the Penn system.
The sale is expected to be completed March 30. Financial terms were not
disclosed.
Once the sale is concluded, Graduate will be run by a joint venture between
Penn and the Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network, of Allentown. The two will
spend 15 months and $35 million to install 58 rehabilitation beds and 38
long-term care beds at the hospital.
Graduate would then reopen in July 2008.
The conversion should let Penn use about 20 beds each at the Hospital of the
University of Pennsylvania and Pennsylvania Hospital for patients who require
more intense care.
"HUP is 100 percent full Monday through Friday these days," Muller said, "so
this allows us to free up some acute-care beds."
Penn will own the buildings, but will have only a 30 percent share of the
joint venture with Good Shepherd. Both are nonprofit organizations.
Graduate's current owner, the for-profit Tenet Healthcare Corp., of Dallas,
said it would wind down operations at the hospital at 18th and Lombard Streets
over the next two months.
Despite interest from several parties, Tenet spokesman Steven Campanini said
none of those bidders wanted to maintain Graduate as an acute-care hospital.
Though licensed for 240 beds, Graduate fills only about a quarter of them a
day.
Muller said it was important to Penn to maintain the Center City hospital as
a health-care facility. He said that in conjunction with nearby Pennsylvania
Hospital, the investment in Graduate should further spur economic development
in the area.
But Alan D. Haber, a pulmonologist and president of the hospital's medical
staff, lamented Graduate's demotion from a full-service hospital to one that
will focus on rehab and caring for patients who are on ventilators and have
other long-term medical needs.
"Losing Graduate as an acute-care hospital is a big loss for the community,"
he said. Patients have always had the choice to go to other hospitals, he
said, but many remained loyal to Graduate even after it fell on hard times after
its acquisition by the now-bankrupt Allegheny health system in 1996.
"This is a venerable institution with a rich legacy of patient care and
physician education," Haber said. "I think it deserves better than what is going
to happen."
The hospital will remain open until the sale is completed March 30, but new
admissions will stop by the end of February.
At that time, a temporary urgent-care center will open in place of the
emergency room. Campanini said these were all steps to prepare the hospital for
the transition from acute care.
While the Philadelphia area has several prominent rehabilitation hospitals,
local experts say they do not expect another to increase competition among the
region's hospital networks.
"I don't see any aspect of this deal that doesn't make sense," said Alan M.
Zuckerman, president of Health Strategies & Solutions Inc., of Philadelphia.
Tenet acquired Graduate along with seven other local hospitals from Allegheny
in November 1998.
Yesterday, Graduate employees received an open letter from hospital chief
executive Brian Finestein informing them they would have opportunities to
transfer to other Tenet hospitals or apply for jobs in the Penn health system.
"Job fairs, employment counseling and appropriate severance will be provided
by Tenet to those employees who do not receive offers of comparable
employment," he wrote.
That is small solace to Henry Nicholas, president of the union that
represents about 200 of Graduate's 400 employees.
"They don't intend to reopen with any of the former employees," Nicholas
said. "It means that we lose about 400 jobs in South Philly, which is a big
loss. Job fairs don't fill that capacity."
Good Shepherd Penn Partners, the new venture, should employ about 450 people
by its second year, said Sally Gammon, president of the Good Shepherd
Rehabilitation network.
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