AHN headed for Hempfield
Westmoreland County will be the location of Highmark Health’s first mini-hospital, although not all of the new neighbors are thrilled about it.
AHN Hempfield Neighborhood Hospital will be a forprofit, three-story, 120,000square-foot facility built on Agnew Road, just off Route 30. AHN’s partner in the project is San Antonio, Texas-based Emerus Holdings Inc., and opening of the hospital is anticipated by summer 2019.
The facility will have an emergency room, 10 inpatient beds plus primary and specialty medical care offices, and it’s the first of four such hospitals that AHN plans for the Pittsburgh area. The other locations have not been disclosed.
“With this neighborhood hospital, we are bringing to Westmoreland County an innovative, patient-centered model that will provide the best possible experience, equality and outcomes for those requiring emergency care, short hospital stays and other outpatient services,” AHN president and CEO Cynthia Hundorfean said in a prepared statement.
The mini-hospital continues AHN’s push into Westmoreland County, an initiative that in recent years has included the purchase of an obstetrics practice, opening of an outpatient center and a walk-in clinic. AHN Hempfield is a direct challenge to Excela Health hospitals, which are located nearby and have served the county for years.
AHN’s development also continues a dispute that came to a boil in 2012 when then-Excela board chair Jim Breisinger said AHN parent Highmark had tried to buy Excela. Highmark officials denied the claims, saying instead that Highmark wanted to collaborate with community hospitals. When AHN first announced plans for its neighborhood hospitals earlier this year, Excela president and CEO Bob Rogalski said the plans were duplicative and would drive up health care costs.
“I view it as predatory,” Mr. Rogalski said Monday after Highmark announced its plans to build the mini-hospital within a few miles of Excela Westmoreland Hospital, “and I don’t think it can be justified.”
Adding hospital bed capacity does not create competition to drive down costs, he said, but rather increases costs for employers and consumers in the form of health insurance premiums.
Excela Health, which operates three hospitals in Westmoreland County, does not have