Hanover Hospital, Pinnacle pursue partnership

Hanover Hospital’s parent company and Harrisburg-based PinnacleHealth System said Friday they are pursuing a partnership between their health care organizations.

This comes less than a week after PinnacleHealth announced plans to acquire Memorial Hospital in York and three other hospitals in the region from Community Health Systems and pursue an affiliation with Pittsburgh-based UPMC. Hanover Hospital has signed a non-binding letter of intent with Pinnacle.

A partnership with the larger PinnacleHealth would allow Hanover Hospital to provide enhanced and expanded services for patients and help retain and recruit physicians, said Lisa Duffy, a Hanover Hospital spokeswoman.

Hanover Hospital has 93 beds and more than 1,400 employees. PinnacleHealth has three hospitals, totaling 627 beds and 6,000 employees.

“Being a standalone hospital in Pennsylvania is increasingly challenging,” Hanover Hospital CEO and President Michael Gaskins said in a news release. “We are excited about what this partnership means for our hospital and the dedicated employees and physicians who care for patients every day. Our organization looks forward to working with PinnacleHealth, not only to enhance the excellent services we provide today, but to explore ways we can grow and increase access to healthcare services for those in our community.”

Hanover Hospital has been expanding. It added a second cardiac catheterization suite in 2015 and opened a mammography center in March, which centralized mammography services in the same location at the hospital.

A partnership between the two health systems would require approval by the Federal Trade Commission, which would review the deal to determine whether it would reduce competition and increase health care costs.

The FTC opposed PinnacleHealth’s earlier plan to merge with Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. PinnacleHealth later dropped plans for a merger after a federal appeals court sided with the FTC.

Hanover Hospital By the Numbers​

Total revenue: $160.2 million*

Total expenses: $139.1 million*

Net operating margin: $21.1 million*

Medical assistance/uncompensated care: $6.7 million*

Charity care: $514,000*

*For fiscal year ended June 30, 2015

Source: Hanover Hospital 2015 annual report

 

This story is part of a content-sharing partnership between WITF and the York Daily Record.