Health Quest takes a partner
Planned merger with Connecticut company will create group of 7 hospitals in 2 states
Health Quest, the parent company of Northern Dutchess Hospital in Rhinebeck and Vassar Brothers Medical Center in Poughkeepsie, is merging with Western Connecticut Health Network to form a company comprising seven hospitals and half a dozen affiliated medical services, the two companies announced Wednesday.
The combined system will serve a total of 1.5 million residents in the two states and be staffed by 2,600 aligned physicians and more than 12,000 total employees, the companies said in a prepared statement to the press.
The projected combined revenue of the new operation is $2.4 billion.
“By joining together, we will expand our reach and enhance our position in today’s consumer-driven environment, helping people optimize their health, prevent disease and manage chronic conditions,” Robert Friedberg, president and chief executive officer of Dutchess County-based Health Quest, said in the statement. “The combined health system will help bring new programs and services to our communities.”
Dr. John Murphy, president and CEO of Danburybased Western Connecticut Health Network, added: “Sharing similar missions and values, our organizations are uniting to create an expanded, patient-centered health system that accelerates the change from sick-care to wellness.”
At the same time, though, Murphy said the individual hospitals “will remain cornerstones in our communities dedicated to providing compassionate, high-quality care .... ”
Murphy is to serve as CEO of the newly combined organization, while Friedberg will serve as president, the companies said. The board of the new entity will be made of eight representatives of Health Quest and eight from Western Connecticut Health Network. The new company will be nonprofit, as the Health Quest and Western Connecticut are now.
“As a nonprofit organization, we will continue to reinvest into our system to fund new clinical programs and services, facilities, advanced technology, new equipment and research,” Friedberg said.
The merger still must receive regulatory approval in both states. The companies said they expect that to happen in time for the deal to be finalized in 2019.
The hospitals under the new company’s umbrella will be Health Quest’s four facilities — Northern Dutchess Hospital in Rhinebeck, Vassar Brothers Medical Center in Poughkeepsie, Putnam Hospital Center in Carmel and Sharon Hospital in Sharon, Conn. — and Western Connecticut Health Network’s Danbury Hospital, New Milford Hospital and Norwalk Hospital in Norwalk, all of which are in the Connecticut communities they’re named for.
Health Quest bought Sharon Hospital from Essent Healthcare of Connecticut in August 2017.
Also to be jointly operated after the Health Quest-Western Connecticut deal is completed will be Health Quest Medical Practice, The Thompson House, Health Quest Urgent Care, Hudson Valley Cardiovascular Practice (also known as The Heart Center), Western Connecticut Medical Group and Western Connecticut Home Care.
Wednesday’s announcement comes about two years after Westchester Medical Center Health Network took over HealthAlliance of the Hudson Valley, which operates the two hospitals in the city of Kingston, as well as Margaretville Memorial Hospital in Delaware County.
That takeover came about seven years after the two Kingston facilities — then known as Kingston Hospital and Benedictine Hospital — affiliated under the HealthAlliance banner.
HealthAlliance now is preparing to substantially expand its Mary’s Avenue Campus (formerly Benedictine) and turn the former Kingston Hospital, now called the Broadway Campus, into a multidiscipline “medical village.”