Trinity Health, the nation's fifth largest health system, is finalizing its acquisition of the assets of the rural community hospital North Ottawa Community Health System in Grand Haven.
The pair signed a letter of intent in March and the integration will be complete on Oct. 1, Livonia-based Trinity said in a press release. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but it is structured as a member substitution, where North Ottawa operates as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Trinity but its business operations, licensures, working capital and leases remain with the subsidiary.
North Ottawa consists of an 81-bed acute care hospital, an 84-bed long-term care facility, emergency medical services division, an inpatient hospice, a retail pharmacy, an urgent care center and physician practices. Those operations will be renamed and operate under the Trinity Health Michigan subsidiary based in Southfield.
North Ottawa's 650 employees will continue to serve patients under Trinity Michigan, and its local leadership will continue to run the business, the system said in a press release.
Download Modern Healthcare’s app to stay informed when industry news breaks.
"This is an exciting day for Grand Haven and the lakeshore because it signifies the start of a new era of access to great local care well into the future," Rob Casalou, president and CEO of Trinity Health Michigan, said in a release. "Healthcare is always about meeting patients where they are. We are confident that with our history of serving together, we can continue to advance the choices available for high-quality specialty and primary care. We are looking forward to preserving a strong local healthcare presence as an integrated health system."
Trinity and North Ottawa have been bedfellows for some time. In 2016, North Ottawa agreed to coordinate patient care with Trinity Health Muskegon, formerly Mercy Muskegon, and North Ottawa's physician group integrated into Trinity Health Physician Group in 2018.
In April, Trinity announced it would rebrand all of its Michigan operations under the Trinity brand. The name change affected its eight existing hospitals in the state, including the Saint Joseph Mercy Health System in metro Detroit and Mercy Health on the state's west side along with medical groups IHA and Mercy Health Physician Partners. Trinity's 22 senior living communities and other entities also changed names.
Trinity now operates nine hospitals in Michigan and more than 24,000 employees. Nationally, Trinity operates 93 hospitals in 25 states with more than 120,000 employees.
