For the first time in its history, the Butler Health System will become a multi-hospital system as it plans to merge with Clarion Healthcare System.
BHS announced the news Wednesday, citing that the two systems have signed a letter of intent to combine, and will negotiate a final agreement over the next few months.
Clarion Healthcare- including Clarion Hospital- will be integrated into Butler Health System.
BHS President Ken DeFurio said Clarion Healthcare had options that ranged from remaining independent to joining a much larger organization- and they selected Butler Health System.
“The Clarion Healthcare System Board, with all of us being from the local community, care deeply about the availability of high quality health care close to home for the people of Clarion County and the surrounding communities and were intent on finding the best path to sustain those services long into the future,” said Fred Port, CHS Board Chair. “We are pleased and excited about this opportunity to partner with Butler Health System to create enhanced services, to increase specialty care and to provide a larger scope of care for our community. Butler Health System has consistently demonstrated a similar vision and culture to ours in preserving locally driven community care.”
Ken DeFurio, President and CEO of Butler Health System, said, “We are very pleased that the leadership of Clarion Healthcare System has decided to partner with us. BHS has worked diligently for many years to prove that affordable, high quality care can and should be provided locally – under the guidance of local leadership and physicians. We have been most impressed as we have come to know the people leading Clarion Healthcare System, and we know that they hold these values as well. We look forward to a very successful future together.”
The two systems will proceed through a period of due diligence, which is expected to take several months. The transaction is subject to negotiation and completion of an executed definitive agreement and required regulatory approvals.
Clarion Healthcare System (CHS) is composed of four affiliates: Clarion Hospital, Health Services of Clarion, Inc., Clarion Development Corporation, Inc., and Clarion Hospital Foundation, all located in Clarion Pennsylvania. Clarion Hospital is a licensed 70-bed community hospital and provides 24-hour emergency department, and includes an eight bed inpatient rehab center, women’s health and birthing services, advanced wound healing hyperbaric center, sleep lab, ICU and a Cancer Center offering chemotherapy and radiation therapy.
Butler Health System (BHS), located in Butler, Pennsylvania, is the parent of Butler Memorial Hospital, its affiliates, and a number of subsidiaries. Butler Memorial hospital is a 326-bed acute-care facility with a broad range of surgical, medical, emergency, and psychiatric services. Butler Health System employs 200 physicians and advanced providers through Butler Medical Providers. BHS includes 72 outpatient locations across eight counties in Western Pennsylvania. BHS employs more than 2500 people.
