Prime Healthcare announces acquisition of Alvarado Hospital

Prime Healthcare Services, Inc. ("Prime Healthcare"), which owns and/or operates 13 acute care hospitals in California, announced the acquisition of Alvarado Hospital ("Alvarado") in San Diego, CA, from Plymouth Health, a privately-held, Los Angeles-based company that has owned and operated the hospital since January 2007.  

Prime Healthcare will continue to operate Alvarado as an acute care hospital with an open and improved emergency department. The Company said it looks forward to working with Alvarado's 450 physicians, 1000 employees and 400 volunteers to provide the highest quality patient care.  

Prime Healthcare also owns and operates Paradise Valley Hospital in National City, CA, a 105-year-old institution it acquired from Adventist Health in 2007. Two of Prime Healthcare's hospitals were named among this year's Top 100 by Thompson Reuters.

"We are pleased that Plymouth Health elected to sell Alvarado to Prime Healthcare, a Top 10 Health System in the nation, to carry on its commitment to provide physician managed quality healthcare at Alvarado," said Prem Reddy, MD, FACC, FCCP, Prime Healthcare's Chairman of the Board. "We will not only uphold Plymouth's commitment to high quality care, but also enhance the quality outcomes in a cost-effective manner."

According to Dr. Pejman Salimpour, one of the principals of Plymouth Health, the decision to sell the hospital was a difficult one. "In the past several years, we have invested millions of dollars in equipment and resources to reinforce Alvarado's services to the community.  We have also attracted a number of the top physicians in their fields to bring their considerable talents to Alvarado.  As a result, the hospital has significantly improved at all levels: medically, operationally, and financially. We want to thank everyone at the hospital for their many contributions and support."

"However, despite these successes, we do not believe that the business model of the stand-alone hospital is viable in today's changing healthcare arena.  We wanted to ensure that Alvarado could continue to provide much-needed services to the people of San Diego, and our best solution was to seek a large, proven California healthcare system. We believe that Prime Healthcare has the resources and expertise to continue the high-quality care and specialty services that are the hallmarks of this hospital."

Alvarado will continue to operate "as-is" providing all aspects of patient care including its most renowned physicians, all the nursing and other supportive staff, and maintenance of all health plan contracts.