By Elliott Brack, editor and publisher | Gwinnett is in the “quiet period” when nothing is heard much about a possible merger between Gwinnett Medical Center and Northside Hospital. The parties are doing their due diligence before announcing if the merger will go forward, and under what terms.
GMC President Phil Wolfe gave some inkling of what was about to happen in speaking before the Gwinnett Rotary Club this week. From what he says, the merger talks are progressing nicely, and we can anticipate a possible announcement before the middle of the year.
Northside Hospital is already the largest in the state (in revenues), and adding on the estimated $700 million in revenues from Gwinnett, will give the merged hospitals more than $3 billion combined in total revenues.
Wolfe
Gwinnett Medical Center opened at its 100 acre main campus in Lawrenceville in 1984. (GMC Duluth has about 30 acres, and re-opened in new facilities in 2006.) The Lawrenceville site has gone through several expansions, completing a second tower in 2009. It now has 550 acute beds on both campuses. Northside Hospital has campuses in Atlanta, Cherokee and Forsyth Counties with a total of 852 licensed beds.
Wolfe, who has been president of GMC for 10 years now, said that since his first years here, there have always been discussion among the Hospital Authority, which owns the Gwinnett facility, about what the medical future of the county would be. It was in 2014, two years ago, that the Hospital hired a Chicago consultant to guide the operational deliberations on its future.
He adds: “The board decided to put out requests for proposals from the other regional hospitals about a possible merger of services.” The hospital has already decided that it was too small to buy other hospitals, so sought these proposals.
From this, the Authority decided to enter into talks with Northside.
Once Northside and GMC make a final agreement on terms of the merger, the proposal must be reviewed by the Georgia Attorney General, which can take from 60-90 days or more. The merger must also be reviewed by the Federal Trade Commission, to make sure it is not anti-competitive. Wolfe says: “But hospitals in this area have no monopoly, and we think this approval will be coming from the FTC.”
Meanwhile, Wolfe is pleased that in talks so far, there have been several positive developments:
- All the GMC employees will keep their jobs.
- The Gwinnett facility will make key decisions here, with local management being in control of local operations.
- All contracts, such as with local physicians, will continue to be honored.
- While the eventual name has not been decided, Northside likes the Gwinnett brand with its heart logo, and wants to make sure that remains in place.
Since GMC is officially owned by the Gwinnett County Hospital Authority, it’s anticipated that Northside will lease the hospital from the Authority. Gwinnett Authority will get a not-yet-defined number of seats on the Northside board.
As to the future, Wolfe says that Gwinnett Medical Center has a huge capitol appetite for its future expansion and operations, which will move even more quickly. “It will move a lot faster with the backing of Northside.”
Wolfe concludes: ‘The Gwinnett Medical Center Authority feels that the merger will be beneficial to the local hospital, and beneficial to the community.”
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