Summa Eyeing Barberton Hospital
By Cheryl Powell, The Akron Beacon Journal, Ohio
Sep. 12–Summa Health System is in talks to buy Barberton Citizens Hospital from a Tennessee-based hospital chain.
Summa recently signed a letter of intent to explore buying Barberton Citizens from Community Health Systems Inc., both parties confirmed Tuesday.
If all goes as planned, Summa will own the 327-bed community hospital by the end of the year.
“It is my hope and expectation that this process will be successful and that we will become a part of Summa Health System,” Willard P. Roderick, president and chief executive of Barberton Citizens, said in a prepared statement. “The leadership at Barberton Citizens Hospital feels this partnership will strengthen the health-care delivery system for our patients and their families.”
The Barberton deal is part of nonprofit Summa’s strategy to aggressively expand in Summit and surrounding counties as crosstown rival Akron General Medical Center continues to pursue a relationship with the Cleveland Clinic, Northeast Ohio’s health-care giant.
Summa owns Akron City, St. Thomas and Cuyahoga Falls General hospitals and forged an affiliation last year with Robinson Memorial Hospital in Portage County.
The Akron health system also is continuing partnership talks with WRH Health System, which includes Wadsworth-Rittman Hospital.
The parties are working on an agreement to form a joint operating company to manage the day-to-day operations of WRH Health System, Summa spokesman Mike Bernstein said. A deal could be completed this year.
“The details are still being worked out, but the discussions are going very well,” Bernstein said.
Several other hospitals also have approached Summa about partnership opportunities, but none of those potential deals can be announced yet, said Thomas J. Strauss, Summa’s president and chief executive.
“Because of our growth and clinical excellence and innovation, we have been asked to talk to many organizations,” he said. “Some of those conversations continue as we speak. We feel good about where we are.”
Summa already is a minority owner of Barberton Citizens.
Community Health Systems holds the majority (93.5 percent)
ownership stake in Barberton Health System LLC, the parent company of Barberton Citizens. Summa and the Cleveland Clinic Foundation own 3.25 percent each.
“Many of our physicians share privileges there,” Strauss said of Barberton Citizens. “Many Barberton residents regularly come to Summa for care. When you put all that together, it just makes the most sense that if the opportunity did arise, that we did move forward.”
Community Health Systems is not talking to anyone but Summa about a possible sale of Barberton Citizens, CHS spokeswoman Rosemary Plorin said.
CHS became the community hospital’s majority owner in July, when the for-profit hospital operator completed the acquisition of Barberton Citizens from former majority owner Triad Hospitals Inc.
The for-profit hospital chain also is the majority owner of Affinity Medical Center, which was created by the merger of the former Doctors and Massillon Community hospitals. Akron General continues to have a minority ownership stake in Affinity.
The discussions with Summa involve only Barberton Citizens and never included Affinity, Plorin said. She declined to answer other questions regarding possible ownership changes for Affinity.
“The company doesn’t discuss negotiations or discussions before they reach a binding agreement,” she said.
If the Barberton deal goes through, Summa expects to keep the same staff and management team in place, said Bernstein, the Summa spokesman.
Barberton Citizens employs about 1,200.
Summa wants to maintain and expand services at the Barberton hospital if it becomes the new owner, Strauss said.
“We’re going to make an investment into the community,” he said. “Our intent on that investment is to look at ways that we can enhance services.”
Barberton Mayor Randy Hart said the likely sale of Barberton Citizens to Summa and its subsequent conversion back to nonprofit status for the first time in 11 years would be “a good thing.”
“We feel good that they are teaming up with Summa,” he said. “We definitely think Summa is a good, strong hospital that we’re looking forward to having a relationship with. . . . I think it will bring more stability going back to nonprofit with Summa.”
Cheryl Powell can be reached at 330-996-3902 or chpowell@thebeaconjournal.com. Staff writer Katie Byard contributed to this story.
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