Lake Health has officially joined University Hospitals, officials announced Friday.
Lake Health operates 11 medical centers in Lake County as well as Beachwood and Chardon, which will now become part of UH.
“The addition of Lake Health expands our geographic footprint and is consistent with our strategy of bringing care close to home for our patients throughout Northeast Ohio,” said Dr. Cliff Megerian, University Hospitals' CEO, in a statement.
“It will ensure convenient access to the most advanced health care and services for patients in Lake County and surrounding communities now and in the future," he said.
The Lake County hospital system is UH’s largest addition to date, according to the news release. Lake Health’s more than 3,000 caregivers and 600 physicians will now be employees of University Hospitals.
The two health care systems are still in discussions concerning whether to change all the Lake Health signage on facilities to match UH branding, a hospital spokesman said.
Lake Health started partnership talks in early 2020, and had previously announced plans to integrate with University Hospitals in December.
Lake Health and UH already had partnerships, including the Lake Health/University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center in Mentor, officials announced in a December news release.
The transaction was through a membership substitution model, which is one of the ways nonprofit health systems can merge to form a combined health system, according to a lawyer from Seyfarth Shaw.
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