Premier Urgent Care acquisition complete
WEST READING >> Tower Health has completed its acquisition of Premier Urgent Care, officially forming a new business line — Tower Health Urgent Care. The acquisition, announced in October, became effective Dec. 1.
Premier’s 19 facilities are located in the health care provider’s southeast service area including Chester, Montgomery and Bucks counties. There is also one location in Berks County and one in Delaware. Tower Health now operates 22 urgent care facilities across the region.
The Berks County-based Tower
“The addition of the Urgent Care facilities in the Tower Health communities ensures we can provide the most appropriate care in the right place, at the right time.”
— Clint Matthews, president and CEO, Tower Health
Health owns six of the region’s hospitals including: Brandywine Hospital, Chestnut Hill Hospital, Jennersville Hospital, Pottstown Hospital, Phoenixville Hospital and Reading Hospital.
With the completion of the acquisition, Tower Health becomes the largest provider of urgent care services — based on weekly visits — in the metropolitan Philadelphia area. In October, Daniel Ahern, vice president, strategy & business development for Tower Health told Digital First Media that Premier had 200,000 annually — or more than 3,800 weekly visits.
“The addition of the Urgent Care facilities in the Tower Health communities ensures we can provide the most appropriate care in the right place, at the right time,” Clint Matthews, president and
CEO, Tower Health, said in a press release. “Providing additional access to skilled and compassionate healthcare providers to our patients helps us continue to deliver on our promise of ‘Advancing Health. Transforming Lives.’”
Walk-in care is available at any of the new urgent care locations for a variety of conditions including: colds, flu, allergies, asthma, sore throat, sports injuries, minor lacerations, sprains, earaches and ear infections and preventive services such as physicals, vaccines and occupational health, according to the release.
Each of the urgent care facilities is open 365 days a year and offers patients access to advanced, comprehensive care from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Urgent Care is an essential link in Tower Health’s continuum of care providing convenient access if a patient lacks a regular primary care doctor, or if the patient’s regular provider is not available, the release stated.
Ahern said in October that access to care was identified in the company’s updated strategic plan as an opportunity for expansion, adding that urgent care centers are a growth area in the health care industry, and are “complementary” with primary care.
As part of Tower Health’s strong, regional, integrated provider/payer system, the expansion of urgent care centers will improve access to Tier 1 in-network walkin care, according to the release.
Ahern said in October that Tower Health had no plans to close any of the Premier Urgent Care centers once the acquisition was completed. That position was confirmed Friday by a spokeswoman for Tower Health, who added that, “patients can expect the same high-quality cost effective care at all of our locations.”
For more information about Tower Health visit www.towerhealth.org.