Ardent oversees growth at its hospitals in Okla., NM

By GRACE WYLER

gwyler@vindy.com

youngstown

The hospital operator that has agreed to purchase Forum Health for $69.8 million has a proven track record of turning around broke and beleaguered urban health systems.

Since Nashville-based Ardent Health Services entered the acute-care hospital market in 2001, the hospital company has overseen the growth and improvement of its hospital systems in Tulsa, Okla., and Albuquerque, N.M., said Ardent spokesman Kevin Gwin.

“We are good for communities. We invest a lot of money,” said Gwin. “We bought a stagnant health care system and raised the standard of care, improved access to health care.”

Ardent, which has promised to invest between $50 million and $70 million in Forum Health, has invested about $250 million in both the Tulsa and the Albuquerque hospital systems, Gwin said. The investment was far more than $100 million Ardent initially pledged, he added.

When Ardent bought the Hillcrest Medical Center in Tulsa in 2004, the broken nonprofit health system was on the “verge of closing its doors,” said Tyra Palmer, a senior vice president at Hillcrest.

“We had already closed some of our facilities, sold some of our assets,” Palmer said. “Now six years later, they have far exceeded all of their commitments to the community.”

In addition to improving the health system’s infrastructure, Ardent has built two new facilities, including the state-of-the-art Oklahoma Heart Institute, Palmer said.

Ardent has been a generous community partner, said Stephanie Cinocco, senior vice president at the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce. The company’s beneficiaries include United Way and Albuquerque Heathcare for the Homeless, she said.

Some of Ardent’s hospital takeovers have met some resistance.

In Albuquerque, Ardent merged St. Joseph Healthcare, a struggling Catholic hospital system with Lovelace Health System, a for-profit insurance company and physician-run group clinic, closing a hospital in the process. Eventually, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez stepped in to form a task force to respond to complaints about the closure and productivity measures.

Ardent’s conflict with the Albuquerque community has since been resolved, Gwin said.

Ardent invested $60 million to renovate one hospital and built the Lovelace Women’s Hospital, he said.