COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – The Community Health Center of Branch County Board of Trustees and the public last night heard an hour long presentation from a Toledo, Ohio based non-profit healthcare system which may have a management agreement in place with the hospital in Coldwater by the end of the year. It would likely lead to the sale of CHC to ProMedica Health Systems in three years or less but nothing moves forward without final approval from the Branch County Board of Commissioners, which is expected to take up the matter in November. The CHC Board will consider the question at its regular October meeting next Monday.
Randy Oostra, ProMedica’s President and CEO, moderated last night’s session in Coldwater and stressed the financial strength of the firm, which includes 13 hospital facilities in Northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan with $3 billion in revenues and 16,000 employees. According to Oostra, they don’t go into communities with the idea of taking things apart but their mission is all about building jobs, clinical programs and services and ProMedica believes there is such an opportunity with the Community Health Center of Branch County.
At the end of his presentation, Oostra answered questions from the audience, mostly from CHC employees concerned with their future employment status should the sale go through. He made it clear that in today’s constantly changing healthcare environment, the idea that you can guarantee jobs forever can’t be done and that’s true anywhere. The success rate of Promedica was displayed with two of its acquisitions , Flower Hospital in Sylvania, Ohio where their cash on hand improved from 190 days to the current 800 and at Defiance, Ohio, which came in at 400 days and today, it’s 1,500 days.
The proposed sale of CHC would be concluded by the end of 2018 but last night, Oostra said the entire process could be advanced at a quicker pace if the right conditions prevail.
