Spartanburg Regional to acquire Mary Black hospitals

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Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System has reached an agreement with Community Health Systems Inc. to purchase the Mary Black Health System, which has two hospitals.

The transaction is expected to close by the end of the year, subject to customary regulatory approvals and closing conditions, according to a news release.

The transaction puts Mary Black Hospital in Gaffney and Mary Black Memorial Hospital in Spartanburg under the Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System umbrella.

“Once the acquisition is complete, the two hospitals, physician clinics and all outpatient services of Mary Black Health System will become divisions of SRHS,” the system said in a written statement in response to further inquiries about details. “This acquisition will better serve local communities in Spartanburg, Union and Cherokee counties.” 

Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

The acquisition pushes the number of people employed through Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System above 8,000, and “substantially all employees in good standing at the time the transaction is closed will be hired,” the news release said.

The Mary Black Health System also includes a physicians group and health network. The two hospitals combined have 332 licensed beds, more than 1,400 employees and 400 physicians on the medical staff, according to its website. Mary Black Hospital was founded in 1925 by three doctors — a father and his two sons — who named it for their wife and mother, according to the Mary Black Foundation.

If the transaction is completed, the Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System will include six hospitals in Spartanburg, Union and Cherokee counties. The current parent company of the Mary Black system, Community Health Systems Inc., is based in Franklin, Tenn., and owns more than 100 hospitals across 20 states.

A statement from Community Health Systems Inc. said sale of the two hospitals is part of a larger group of divestitures discussed during the publicly-traded company’s second-quarter earnings call. The company owns four other South Carolina hospitals: Carolinas Health System, Florence; Carolinas Hospital System, Marion; Chester Regional Medical Center, Chester; and Springs Memorial Hospital, Lancaster. The company did not say if any of those hospitals are part of divestiture plans.