Prime Healthcare Services Buys Adventist hospital
By: Darla Martin Tucker, The Business Press, November 07, 2006.
A Victorville firm is adding an eighth hospital to its rapidly expanding portfolio of community hospitals.
Prime Healthcare Services Inc., chaired by Victorville cardiologist Prem Reddy, has signed a letter of intent to purchase the 301-bed Paradise Valley Hospital in National City. The hospital is owned by Adventist Health, a non-profit Christian organization in Roseville.
Prime Healthcare, a for-profit entity, "has committed to continue operations of the Adventist Health hospital," a release from Adventist Health said.
The sale agreement includes the hospital's main physical plant, which occupies 30 acres in San Diego's South Bay. The deal includes the Bayview Behavioral Health campus and the South Bay Rehabilitation Center.
"Substantially all of the hospital's current employees will be offered employment with the new owner when the sale is finalized," the release said. The hospital has 300 doctors and 1,515 employees, according to Adventist Health's Web site.
The state attorney general must approve the transfer from non-profit to for-profit owner. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter2007 following state authorization.
Prime Healthcare reportedly is paying about $30 million for the 102-year-old facility. Jana Retes, Prime Healthcare's director of marketing, could not confirm the amount Nov. 2.
Adventist Health operates 20 hospitals in Hawaii, California, Oregon and Washington, according to its Web site. It also runs 16 home care agencies. The organization's net revenue for the year ended Dec. 31, 2005 was $1.7 billion. Net income was $34.3 million.
During 2005 Adventist Health provided $219.7 million in free health care, donations, wellness activities and subsidized programs throughout its communities.
Last year, the organization had 19,026 employees, 122,210 admissions in its facilities and 443,565 emergency room visits.
Adventist Health was founded on beliefs of the Seventh-day Adventist Church based in Silver Spring, Md.
Paradise Valley Hospital's mission is to "share God's love through compassionate care and exceptional health care services." Its values include "the compassionate, healing ministry of Jesus," according to the hospital's Web site.
Prime Healthcare will leave those values and mission in place and incorporate its own mission of providing "comprehensive quality health care in a compassionate, convenient and cost-effective manner," Retes said.
Prime Healthcare targets small hospitals in need of improvements. "Our goal is to invest in the infrastructure and work with the small community hospitals to keep them alive," Lex Reddy, Prime Healthcare's chief executive officer, said in August.
Prime Healthcare on Sept. 30 closed acquisitions of three hospitals in Orange County: the 131-bed Huntington Beach Hospital, 141-bed La Palma Intercommunity Hospital and 219-bed West Anaheim Medical Center.
Nashville hospital chain Vanguard Health Systems Inc. sold the facilities to Prime Healthcare.
Prime Healthcare owns and operates Montclair Hospital Medical Center, Sherman Oaks Hospital and Grossman Burn Center, Chino Valley Medical Center and Desert Valley Hospital in Victorville.
The Victorville firm announced July 7 its acquisition of Doctors Hospital Medical Center of Montclair and plans to change the hospital's name to Montclair Hospital Medical Center.
The company acquired Sherman Oaks Hospital in January. Prime Healthcare acquired Chino Valley Medical Center in September 2005.