Summa Health System and a group of physicians are planning to build and operate a for-profit hospital in northern Summit County, Ohio, between Akron and Cleveland.
Summa, based in Akron, has signed a letter of intent with Western Reserve Hospital Partners, a physicians group that incorporated in July for the purpose of the proposed 100-bed hospital. They plan to determine over the next 180 days whether to move forward with the project.
Amid growing competition from Cleveland’s University Hospitals and Cleveland Clinic, Summa is executing a plan of regional expansion that in the past year has brought a fourth hospital to the system—Barberton (Ohio) Citizens Hospital—as well as two hospital affiliations and joint ventures with physicians in cardiac and orthopedic care.
“It really is a matter of us establishing ourselves as one of three options in healthcare in Northeast Ohio,” Summa’s President and Chief Executive Officer Tom Strauss said in an interview.
The agreement with Western Reserve Hospital Partners spells out that the proposed hospital would have a charity-care policy consistent with Summa’s, Strauss said, and “will look and feel like every other entity we have in terms of providing support to our communities.” -- by Gregg Blesch
