UPMC will spend $2 billion to build three specialty hospitals, the Pittsburgh-based integrated health system announced Friday.
The UPMC Heart and Transplant Hospital, UPMC Hillman Cancer Hospital, and UPMC Vision and Rehabilitation Hospital will be located on the campuses of UPMC's Presbyterian Hospital in Oakland, Pa., and its Shadyside and Mercy hospitals in Pittsburgh. The cancer center is slated to open in 2022 and the rehabilitation facility in 2020; UPMC did not provide any detail on the heart and transplant hospital opening.
The not-for-profit system pledged a $1 billion annual capital commitment for the new hospitals, which will be built into existing facilities and not add new beds.
"Tomorrow's UPMC will not only be best-in-class, it will, in fact, have created a class virtually unto itself," UPMC board Chair Nicholas Beckwith III said in a statement.
The new hospitals will employ new surgical techniques, new imaging technologies, and advanced clinical trials and research that will drive technological innovation, executives said at press conference Friday.
"These digitally based specialty hospitals are the expression of our cutting edge translational science creating treatments and cures for the most devastating diseases," UPMC President and CEO Jeffrey Romoff said in a statement.
Health systems have been carving out specialties in select markets, particularly in more high-margin lines including cardiac and orthopedic, while downsizing in markets where they aren't leading. Providers have also been building out their ambulatory clinics to try to secure more referrals amid declining hospital admissions.
UPMC has been forming partnerships to bolster certain service lines including a joint venture formed in July with Butler Health System to expand obstetric and gynecological care.
The organization reported a net income of $901 million on revenue of $3.87 billion in the quarter ended Sept. 30, up from $254 million on revenue of $3.38 billion a year earlier, driven by its merger with Harrisburg-based health system PinnacleHealth, according to an earnings report issued Wednesday. While the seven-hospital deal bolstered its earnings, Moody's Investors Service downgraded its debt one notch to A1 from Aa3 over concerns regarding moving into the highly competitive market in central Pennsylvania that continues to consolidate.
UPMC also added 200,000 members on its health plan the past year, amounting to a 7% increase to more than 3.2 million members