Officials at Butler Health System and Excela Health have signed a Letter of Intent to combine their respective organizations into a new health system serving western Pennsylvania.
“We believe strongly that our new partnership will extend our intellectual and financial capital. In doing so, we can enhance access to care, decrease the cost of care and continue to focus on providing improved experiences and outcomes for patients, “said John Sphon, Chief Executive Officer at Excela.
“The new System will provide additional services and better access to those services,” added Ken DeFurio, President and Chief Executive Officer at Butler Health System. “We are pleased that this partnership amplifies our ability to provide tertiary care, yet remain physician led and community focused.”
Both Sphon and DeFurio emphasized that the combined organization will present the requisite scale to accelerate and elevate its relevancy and essentiality in the region’s highly competitive healthcare marketplace.
When finalized, the new health system would generate over $1 billion in revenue, employ approximately 7,300 people, and have over 1,000 physicians and practitioners that serve a population of 750,000. This combination will support 5 hospitals which includes Butler, Clarion, Frick, Latrobe and Westmoreland Hospitals.
Sphon and DeFurio emphasized that more specific details of the new entity will be agreed upon and move forward through mutual agreements as the definitive documents are completed. Topics such as leadership and new system name will be determined. Remaining discussions, required regulatory approval and final board approvals could take through the end of 2022.
