Hospital systems are staking additional claims in the fast-growing and consolidating Atlanta market.
Six-hospital Piedmont Healthcare has received clearance from the Georgia Attorney General to proceed with the merger of its seventh hospital, Athens Regional Health System, not-for-profit Piedmont announced Friday.
In Athens Regional Health, Piedmont gets an integrated system with revenue of about $425 million located near the main campus of the University of Georgia about 30 minutes from Atlanta.
Atlanta-based Piedmont posted revenue of about $1.86 billion in 2015. The system intends to rename the Athens hospital Piedmont Athens Regional Medical Center when the merger is scheduled to close in October.
In Atlanta, Northside Hospital intends to lease most of a 12-story medical office and outpatient center planned in the city's booming midtown neighborhood, Northside has announced.
The satellite, which is expected to open in mid-2018, will have an imaging center, primary-care offices, a cardiology department and a street-level urgent-care center.
The new Northside Midtown Medical center, already 80% pre-leased, is tailored to physician groups, Northside said.
Brand Properties, which is developing the site, said the midtown area has $2.8 billion worth of new development underway. The neighborhood already attracts about 65,000 employees weekly, the developer said. It is located near the I-75 and I-85 freeways.
Not-for-profit Northside, a powerhouse system in the northern part of metropolitan Atlanta, declined to comment except to say it is speaking with physicians about office availability.
The new outpatient center will be located a little over a mile from Piedmont's flagship 488-bed Piedmont Atlanta Hospital and equal distance from Emory University Hospital Midtown, a teaching hospital.
Each hospital is affiliated with about 1,000 physicians.
"The healthcare landscape in Metro Atlanta and in Georgia is evolving rapidly," said Emory spokesman Vincent Dollard. "Emory University Hospital Midtown saw more than 21,000 admissions and had 207,000 outpatient visits in 2015, and is expanding services to keep up with demand."
Northside Hospital also is pursuing a big deal outside of the city. It has announced a merger with Gwinnett Medical Center, a not-for-profit system in Lawrenceville, Ga., with revenue of about $700 million.
Combined with Gwinnett, Northside would have annual revenue of about $3 billion.
Northside spokeswoman Katherine Watson said Northside is making good progress in its talks with Gwinnett, but did not comment further.
