CHS faces strike at Pa. hospital
Posted on November 16, 2009 at 11:44 amService Employees International Union representatives have issued a strike notice at Pottstown Memorial Hospital, a Community Health Systems facility where the previous labor contract expired in August. The move comes after CHS officials appear to have gone AWOL.
Speaking at the press conference, hospital workers said their employer failed to “show up” at the three previous meetings in which negotiations were expected to continue. Roy Feick, a certified pharmacy technician at the hospital for five years, said CHS has shown “no respect for us at PMMC or the community of Pottstown … otherwise they would attend negotiations.
“We can’t negotiate with ourselves; we need CHS in the room,” he added.
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Quorum prepares to hand off Arkansas hospital
Posted on November 6, 2009 at 9:56 am
Sparks Hospital in Fort Smith, Ark., has agreed to sell itself to Health Management Associates for about $138 million, which means the two Quorum Health Resources who have been managing the 492-bed facility will soon be on their way back to the CHS home office in Brentwood.
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CHS recruits Alabama sports medicine group
Posted on November 3, 2009 at 10:30 amTrinity Medical Center, a 534-bed Birmingham hospital run by Community Health Systems, has recruited a 22-person sports medicine and orthopedics practice. The doctor running the group – who also is medical director of the new United Football League and Major League Soccer – already is looking to expand across Alabama.
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Union turns up heat on CHS in Pennsylvania
Posted on October 28, 2009 at 11:22 amRepresentatives of the Service Employees International Union have presented a 400-person petition to officials at Pottstown Memorial Medical Center, a Community Health Systems hospital outside Philadelphia. The two parties are working to replace a contract that expired in August.
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CHS buying Washington clinic business
Posted on October 21, 2009 at 11:43 amCommunity Health Systems (Ticker: CYH) has reached an agreement to buy specialty medical provider Rockwood Clinic, The Spokesman-Review reports. Last year, CHS bought nearby Deaconess Medical Center and Spokane Valley Hospital in a $156M deal.
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CHS closer to new Indiana hospital
Posted on October 19, 2009 at 8:13 amCommunity Health Systems’ hospital in Valparaiso has completed the acquisition of more than 100 acres that will become the home of a new $210 million hospital.
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Headline homes: Nashville’s top sales, September 2009
Posted on October 16, 2009 at 12:38 pm
Health care names, including some high-profile VUMC docs and a big fish at Community Health, dominate our latest look at who’s buying Middle Tennessee priciest abodes.
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Lazard: CHS stands out in hospital space
Posted on October 15, 2009 at 2:13 pmInvestment firm Lazard has started covering shares of hospital operators, but isn’t terribly enthused about their prospects compared to those of companies elsewhere in the health care space. The one exception: Community Health Systems, which has made some smart acquisitions and carries no short-term debt. Shares of CHS (Ticker: CYH) are up about 1 percent today.
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CHS follows through in PA
Posted on October 12, 2009 at 10:35 amCommunity Health Systems is in the middle section of a $100 million-plus capital investment push at a number of its Pennsylvania hospitals. Some of the spending stems from a 2004 commitment, but good old demographic growth is playing its part, too.
The number of people living in communities around the hospital is expected to jump by 11 percent over the next two years, Davis said. The hospital has already experienced a 32 percent increase in admissions and a 16 percent increase in emergency room visits during the past seven years.
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QHR moves up the chart
Posted on October 7, 2009 at 8:02 amQuorum Health Resources, a subsidiary of Community Health Systems, has moved up six spots in Modern Healthcare’s annual ranking of health care management consultants.
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CHS’ Smith: More M&A opportunities coming
Posted on October 2, 2009 at 2:58 pm
The president and CEO of Community Health Systems spoke today to the Vanderbilt University’s Health Care Business Alliance Conference about his company’s strategies and the hospital market as a whole. Since Smith joined the company in 1997, it has posted a compounded annual growth rate of 28 percent and is on track for revenues of $12 billion in 2009. The company employs 85,000 people across the country and about 2,000 in the Nashville area. Here are some excerpts from this talk:
• On the benefit of CHS’ national footprint: “We are spread out, We don’t have any one hospital or any one state where we have a disproportionate share of our revenue or earnings. The importance of that is risk and avoiding risk.”
• On why centralized administration works: Smith said CHS’ centralized services – for everything from facility management to billing, customer service and insurance programs – has helped it improve hospital operations and quickly implement new programs and technology.
It also helps bring acquired hospitals into the fold more quickly. In the past year, CHS has acquired three facilities with a combined 632 beds and $430 million in revenue. Having the systems in place to absorb those facilities has helped CHS hold its own after acquisitions. The company’s share of the markets where it operates stands at about 43 percent – $12 billion of the $28 billion in hospital revenue.
• On the M&A market: Moving forward, there will be a lot of opportunities for hospital acquisitions as many of the smaller, independent hospitals continue to struggle, Smith said. Prices are now at 40 percent to 60 percent of net revenue, as opposed to the 70 percent to 80 percent of net revenue of several years ago. (For more on this topic, check this coming Monday’s City Paper.)
• On the prospect/cloud of health care reform: Regardless of what shape reform takes, Smith said the focus of health care will continue to be on patient care.
“I don’t care what the legislators do, they can’t screw this up that bad.”
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Looking for a sign to get out of some Nashville stocks?
Posted on September 21, 2009 at 9:23 am
Like many of their counterparts across the country, local public-company insiders are bailing in decent numbers, suggesting equities as a whole may have trouble holding their ground after the run of the last six months.
Among the latest to sell are Psych Solutions’ Joey Jacobs (see our post from earlier today) and Gaylord Entertainment President David Kloeppel. The latter last Friday sold almost a fifth of the shares he owned, adding about $227,000 to his bank account. Gaylord shares (Ticker: GET) have more than doubled since Independence Day.
Also selling on Friday was Community Health Systems director Mitchell Watson, who unloaded about $170,000 worth of stock. CHS shares (Ticker: CYH) are up 130 percent year to date.
SEE ALSO: Sell! Buy! Sell!, the Economist cover cartoon from 1997 that is partly pictured here.
Local hospitals ride Tenet’s coattails
Posted on September 14, 2009 at 9:47 amFor the second time in two months, Tenet Healthcare has raised its earnings estimates — this time by about 8 percent — saying volumes and payer mix defied the typical trend of a summer slowdown. The California-based company’s shares (Ticker: THC) are up almost 9 percent in early trading, helping lift Nashville-based players Community Health Systems (Ticker: CYH) and LifePoint (Ticker: LPNT).
SEE ALSO: Tenet’s first forecast boost from late July
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QHR, Essent make the cut in Ohio
Posted on September 3, 2009 at 8:24 am
The board of a $40 million hospital east of Cincinnati has voted to conduct due diligence on the purchase proposals submitted by Essent Healthcare and Quorum Health Resources, a division of Community Health Systems. Bids from Brim Healthcare and LifePoint have been moved aside.
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CHS’ Spokane labor issues worsening
Posted on September 2, 2009 at 3:20 pm
The National Labor Relations Board has filed charged Community Health Systems with negotiating in bad faith in its dealings with Service Employees International Union members in Spokane, Wash. The development comes six months after Franklin-based CHS first ran into trouble with union workers there, tensions that were exacerbated when the company laid off more than two dozen people.
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