Memorial Hermann Health System and micro-hospital operator Emerus Holdings are coming together in a joint venture that will put two Houston-area Emerus facilities under the Memorial Hermann name and link them to the health system's network.
Until now, the two facilities in Tomball and Sugar Land, Texas, were the only Emerus facilities that weren't affiliated with a larger health system. Once the transaction closes later this summer, the joint venture will be able to open more facilities down the road.
Micro-hospitals fall between urgent-care clinics and full-blown hospitals, and offer their communities laboratory services, inpatient beds and other hospital services on a much smaller scale. They often have fewer then 10 beds; the Tomball Emerus location has just eight beds and the Sugar Land facility has seven.
The micro-hospitals will undergo rebranding and will be brought into Memorial Hermann's managed-care strategy, which includes direct contracts with commercial insurers, said Vic Schmerbeck, executive vice president of strategy and business development for Emerus Holdings.
Patients might also see some changes too. "The benefit to patients is that primary and specialty care, as well as other outpatient clinical services, will be available to them through the national Memorial Hermann Health System," Schmerbeck said.
