Content area
Full text
Sutter Health is buying another Northern California hospital. This time it's Warrack Hospital in Santa Rosa. If the $12 million deal is approved, it would be the 29th in the Sutter chain.
It's the second merger announcement in recent weeks by the Sacramento-based healthcare system. Sutter expects to complete an affiliation that would bring St. Luke's Hospital in San Francisco into the system some time next year.
Meanwhile, affiliation talks recently began with Healdsburg General Hospital in Healdsburg in Sonoma County.
Sutter's clout at the bargaining table with health plans increases with every new link in the chain.
Warrack Hospital in Santa Rosa would be one of just a handful of forprofit hospitals Sutter has acquired.
Sutter would buy the 79-bed hospital and use it to relieve demand for services at the system's 175-bed Santa Rosa Medical Center, which has been operating at record levels in recent months. The hospitals are less than five miles apart. Sutter would pay an estimated $12 million.
"Our occupancy is running at about 40 percent, so we have extra capacity - and Sutter has a capacity problem," said Dale Iverson, chief executive officer at Warrack. "This agreement allows the hospital to keep jobs for our employees and continue to provide services in the community."
The...