2007

3 December, 2007

Summa Health System Completes Acquisition of Barberton Citizens Hospital

Akron, Ohio, Dec. 3, 2007 – Summa Health System has completed its acquisition of Barberton Citizens Hospital from a subsidiary of Tennessee-based Community Health Systems. The acquisition, part of Summa’s strategic plan to expand services and create greater value through regional collaboration and expansion, increases the number of hospitals in its System to six.       

Summa, driven by its desire to enhance care for the people of Barberton and the surrounding communities, entered into negotiations to purchase Barberton Citizens Hospital in September. There are no plans to make any changes to hospital leadership or to eliminate employees. The search for a successor to Barberton Citizens Hospital President & CEO Willard Roderick, who recently announced plans to retire effective May 31, 2008, will begin in the near future.

“When we began our negotiations to acquire Barberton Citizens Hospital earlier this year, we did so with two core beliefs,” said Tom Strauss, Summa Health System president & CEO. “First, the hospital is a tremendous community asset and by working together we can continue to evolve the wonderful care that it provides for the people of Barberton. Second, given our existing minority ownership stake in the hospital, adding it to our system is a strategically important and sound business decision as we continue to meet our goal of regional growth.”   

The acquisition of Barberton Citizens Hospital represents the third addition to Summa Health System in 2007. In January, it formed an affiliation agreement with Robinson Memorial Hospital in Ravenna, Ohio. Summa also entered into an affiliation agreement in November with WRH Health System in Wadsworth, Ohio. Other Summa hospitals include Akron City, St. Thomas and Cuyahoga Falls General.

“I look forward to the positive impact that becoming a part of Summa Health System will have on the residents of our community,” said Roderick. “I have enjoyed our time as a member of Community Health Systems. It’s a tremendous organization comprised of outstanding people. In Summa Health System, I look forward to joining a hometown healthcare organization. It is not only one of the area’s best providers of care, but one of the nation’s finest.”     

In addition to hospital expansion, Summa continued the growth of its tertiary campus – Akron City Hospital – with the start of construction on its new outpatient cancer center and the announcement of plans to construct and operate a 132,000 square-foot orthopaedic center in conjunction with Akron-based Crystal Clinic. Also in 2007, Summa opened a new Wellness Institute in Hudson, Ohio, a 65,000 square-foot facility featuring an extensive medically-based fitness program. 
    
“We’ve had a long relationship with Barberton Citizens Hospital going back several years when we became minority shareholders in that hospital when they were sold to a for-profit system,” said Tom Knoll, president of the Summa Health System Board of Directors. “We’ve had an ongoing synergy with them in terms of providing services and also receiving referrals from their hospital, and I think we have a natural relationship with them going into this transaction. It is an opportunity for us to provide for the people of Barberton the ability to recreate a not-for-profit institution to serve their healthcare needs in that community.” 

“Barberton Citizens Hospital has undergone an extraordinary evolution over the last 12 years, beginning as a nonprofit community hospital, then becoming a for-profit hospital owned by one, then another, and yet a third national for-profit hospital chain, and now finally becoming once again a nonprofit community hospital,” said Dr. Mike Frank, chairman of the Barberton Citizens Hospital Board of Trustees. “Along the way Barberton Hospital began to hit its stride, working with a single-minded focus to improve every aspect of each patient's experience, working to establish centers of excellence which offer specialty care at a level which was once thought to be beyond the capabilities of a community hospital. We are therefore thrilled and excited to be a Summa hospital, to be affiliated with a health system which so clearly shares our goals and values of excellence, compassion and service.”

About Summa Health System
Summa Health System is one of the largest organized delivery systems in Ohio.  Encompassing a network of hospitals, community health centers, a health plan, a physician-hospital organization, research and a foundation, Summa is nationally renowned for excellence in patient care and for exceptional approaches to healthcare delivery.  Summa's clinical services are consistently recognized by U.S. News and World Report, Thomson Healthcare (formerly Solucient) and The Leapfrog Group.

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