MUSC Board of Trustees votes to buy Midlands hospitals, including Providence Health
The Medical University of South Carolina’s board of trustees approved the acquisition of Providence Hospital in Columbia and other Midlands health care facilities in a special-called board meeting Friday. MUSC will pay about $80 million in the deal.
“We felt like this was a place we could enter into the arena and contribute to the state of South Carolina,” said Dr. James Lemon, chairman of the board of trustees
The next step in this sale is for the Legislature’s State Fiscal and Accountability Authority to vote to approve the decision Tuesday, according to House budget chief Murrell Smith, R-Sumter.
The board is made up of 16 governing members, including Smith’s father, Dr. Murrell Smith, Sr., who did not vote Friday. The other 15 members voted for the acquisition.
The deal includes Providence Hospital on Forest Drive, Providence Northeast near Farrow Road and I-77, KershawHealth in Camden and an emergency room in Fairfield County. All are now owned by Lifepoint Health of Tennessee. On Aug. 1, 2021, the board expects to close the deal with LifePoint and officially re-brand the facilities to MUSC.
MUSC is financing the purchase through the Department of Housing and Urban Development and will pay back the money with revenue from the hospital, according to Lemon.
“South Carolina needs to take care of South Carolinians, rather than going to Duke, or UNC or Wake or anywhere else necessarily,” said MUSC President Dr. David Cole.
The hospital plans to spend another $80 million for improvements at the new properties that will include a new electronic health system, new technology and facility upgrades.
MUSC plans to employ all 2,000 active employees in good standing at the hospitals, including the leadership staffs, according to Cawley. This will raise the system’s total number of employees across the state to about 19,000 and bring the hospital bed count to about 2,000, according to CEO Dr. Patrick Cawley.
Providence was Columbia’s Catholic hospital for 77 years until LifePoint purchased it in 2015. Because LifePoint is a private company, little financial information is available about the local hospitals. MUSC is not affiliated with any religion or denomination.
The Greenville-based Prisma Health company tried to buy Providence in March 2020, but the deal fell through in April because of a “complex regulatory path,” the company announced. LifePoint approached MUSC after the deal fell through, according to Cole.
“At the end of the day, we feel strongly that the best care is local,” said Cole. “We don’t need to control the universe, we need to be present and we need to have partnerships that are productive, and that’s really our basis for what we’re trying to accomplish.”
Several local lawmakers were angry with Prisma’s planned takeover of Providence and the other local LifePoint facilities, saying the deal would worsen care, result in layoffs and hurt the economy by creating a monopoly. Some of those lawmakers have supported MUSC expanding into the Midlands.
“I think MUSC is an awesome health care system. I’ve had the opportunity to work with them for many years and just think that they are fantastic,” Sen. Darrell Jackson, D-Richland told The State Thursday.
Rep. Kirkman Finlay, R-Richland, said, “MUSC has great relations with the state government, and I look forward to working with them.”
MUSC is the second largest health care system in South Carolina and was the first medical school in the South after opening in 1824. In 2019, the public, nonprofit health system expanded across the state by buying four community hospitals in Lancaster, Florence, Marion and Chester.
The medical school trains around 3,000 students and 800 residents per year, and the hospital system employs around 17,000 people as one of Charleston’s largest employers, according to hospital spokesperson Heather Woolwine.
This story was originally published June 25, 2021 at 1:11 PM.
CORRECTION: The previous report said that the vote was unanimous, but board member Dr. Murrell Smith Sr. abstained from voting.
