Emanuel Medical Center has reached an agreement to be sold, hospital officials announced today.
Tenet Healthcare Corporation, a Dallas-based investor-owned healthcare company, will purchase Turlock's only hospital. The purchase price was not disclosed.
“Emanuel Medical Center is a natural fit for Tenet’s expanding network in the Central Valley to provide the community and our patients coordinated care that is close to home,” said Jeff Koury, senior vice president for Tenet’s California region. “We are excited to work with the dedicated and talented employees and physicians of Emanuel Medical Center who provide exemplary medical care within the community.”
Tenet owns and operates 49 hospitals in 11 states, including Modesto's Doctors Medical Center and Manteca's Doctors Hospital. According to Tenet, the purchase will improve the corporation's Central Valley healthcare network, heading to improved efficiency of healthcare delivery.
“The combination of Emanuel Medical Center with Tenet’s existing hospitals represents the alignment of leading healthcare organizations with a long history of providing high-quality patient care in the Central Valley region,” Koury said. “We all share the same deep commitment to meeting the community’s healthcare needs and providing patients with expanded choices for care as part of an integrated healthcare network.”
Emanuel will remain affiliated with the Evangelical Covenant Church, and will retain its focus on faith-based care. Tenet owns other faith-based hospitals, including some previously owned by Catholic and Baptist churches.
Emanuel officials first announced in September 2012 that the hospital was in talks with Tenet Healthcare Corporation for “a possible collaboration in the delivery of hospital services.”
“As health care delivery becomes more expensive and complex, and with the onset of the Affordable Care Act provisions, it is becoming even more challenging for independent hospitals to thrive,” said Emanuel President and CEO John Sigsbury at the time. “An affiliation with a large healthcare system would enable Emanuel access to enhanced clinical integration and advanced information technology and operating systems, contracting relationships, capital resources, and nationwide purchasing programs that could sharply reduce our cost of care and allow wider access to hospital services for our local residents.”
The sale is still pending approval and closing conditions. The purchase will likely be finalized in the second quarter of 2013, Tenet officials said.
Emanuel Medical Center comprises a 209-bed acute care hospital and a 145-bed nursing facility. In September 2012, the sale discussions did not include the Emanuel-operated Brandel Manor nursing home or the hospital's 49-bed assisted living facility; it remains to be seen if these were included in the sale.
More information will follow on this story as it becomes available, following a 4 p.m. conference call.
