After much uncertainty, Michigan hospital to be sold

It took well over a year, but it looks like the sale of Coldwater Regional Hospital is moving forward.

Insight Health System says it has reached a deal to acquire Coldwater Regional from ProMedica.

Based in Toledo, Ohio, ProMedica has been working to sell the hospital in Coldwater, Michigan for more than a year as the facility has faced financial difficulties. At the end of last year, ProMedica closed its labor and delivery unit, a decision more hospitals have made in the past few years due to financial pressures.

Insight, which is based in Flint, Michigan, operates hospitals and healthcare facilities in Michigan, Ohio, Iowa, New Jersey and Illinois. Just last week, Insight reached a deal with Steward Health Care to take over two Ohio hospitals that had at one point been slated to close this month.

With the acquisition of Coldwater, Insight is expanding its presence in Michigan. Coldwater is a city of nearly 14,000 in southern Michigan, near the Indiana state line. Atif Bawahab, Insight Health’s chief strategy officer, said the system is looking to bring top-notch care to the community. Insight and ProMedica plan to form “a joint planning team” to ease the transition.

“We are grateful to ProMedica and Coldwater Regional Hospital leadership teams for their dedication and commitment to ensuring a smooth transition over the coming months,” Bawahab said in a statement. “We look forward to partnering with the team to continue to grow the hospital’s world-class compassionate care and deepen the connections and impact within the Coldwater community.”

When the deal is closed, Insight says it plans to keep Dan Schwanke as president of Coldwater Regional Hospital, and the system says the rest of Coldwater’s leadership team will remain in place.

A year ago, ProMedica announced that it had reached an agreement to sell Coldwater Regional to American Healthcare Systems, but that deal ultimately didn’t come to pass.

Coldwater Regional has faced financial stress for some time. Arturo Polizzi, CEO of ProMedica, wrote in a letter to staff in March that the hospital had seen some improvement in its finances and pointed to an uptick in surgeries and emergency department visits, WTVB reported. In that letter, Polizzi noted that ProMedica still hoped to find a buyer for the hospital.

Starting last week, Insight took over operations of Trumbull Regional Medical Center and Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital in Warren, Ohio, a city of 39,000 just over an hour from Cleveland. Steward, which is in bankruptcy, had planned to close the hospitals this month but recently announced that it reached a deal with Medical Properties Trust, which owns Steward’s real estate, to keep most of the hospitals open.

Insight says it has experience turning around hospitals in financial distress and improving patient care. The system points to its acquisition of Mercy Hospital in Chicago in 2021, keeping the hospital out of closure and restoring its emergency department, as well as behavioral health and maternal health services.

Insight now operates eight acute care hospitals, six surgery centers and 28 clinics.

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