Longmont United Hospital to join Centura Health

LONGMONT – Longmont United Hospital, pressured by rising costs and dropping reimbursements, plans to affiliate with Centura Health, becoming the 16th hospital in the state to join the health-care provider.

Hospital representatives said Thursday that they signed a letter of intent to become a member of Centura Health. Under the proposed agreement, the hospital would be operated and managed by Centura in exchange for a long-term commitment of capital and resources. Hospital assets, such as real estate and equipment, would be merged into Centura Health.

The agreement is expected to take effect in the first half of next year pending legal and financial reviews. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The hospital’s union with Centura will not immediately affect employment at either organization.

Englewood-based Centura has 15 hospitals, including Avista Adventist Hospital in Louisville; and six senior-living communities. It also has physician practices and clinics, home care and hospice, and emergency air transport services. The health-care provider has more than 6,000 affiliated physicians and 17,100 employees in Colorado and Kansas.

Centura said earlier this year that it was planning to construct two buildings and renovate a third for health and wellness centers in the north Denver metro area, part of the health-care provider’s new neighborhood health program.

The company planned to build 10,800-square-foot health and wellness centers in Dacono and Thornton, and renovate an existing building in Westminster to create a 46,000-square-foot health and wellness center.

Established in 1959, Longmont United Hospital, which has about 1,200 employees, has a 24-hour emergency department that treated more than 32,000 patients last year. The hospital specializes in women’s and children’s services, cardiology, surgery, cancer care, orthopedics and neurosurgery.

Centura Health will eventually be added to Longmont United Hospital’s name. Donations made to the Longmont United Hospital Foundation will continue to solely fund the hospital.

As recently as last week, hospital officials denied that they were in talks to merge with any other health organizations.

But the hospital’s board of directors and leadership had been reviewing its options with a consultant when it became concerned about shrinking reimbursements from private payers and government sources such as Medicare and the expenses associated with implementing electronic medical records.

“We needed to take a look at some long-range sustainable solutions to meet those new pressures of all the changes going on in the health-care industry,” said Richard Lyons, chairman of Longmont United Hospital’s board.

The hospital began negotiations with Centura after it issued a request for proposals to which five health care providers responded. The board unanimously decided to affiliate with Centura.

“We were impressed with the quality care for our patients in the community,” Lyons said about Centura.

The board of community representatives will continue to oversee the hospital, though with an additional board member from Centura, Clair Volk, vice chairman of the board, will begin serving as chairman in January.

After an assessment of both organizations is completed, board members will vote on a definitive agreement that outlines the specifics of the affiliation. If approved, the next step would be regulatory review and approval by the Colorado Attorney General.

Longmont United CEO Mitch Carson said one of the reasons it will affiliate with Centura was to lower costs.

“We’re hoping by joining them, we will learn from some of their practices on how we can be even better,” he said. “We have to lower the costs for the people we serve.”

Part of lowering costs will be to focus on wellness programs aimed at preventing people from being hospitalized, Carson said. Joining Centura Health also will help the hospital improve its electronic medical records management.

“We can’t just take care of the patient when they’re in the hospital,” he said. “It’s broader than that: It has to be in the physician’s office, it has to be in home care. Centura Health has focused on this.”

A previous version of this article misstated that no hospital assets would be included in the transaction. Hospital assets will be merged into Centura Health. 

on Facebook on LinkedIn