IU Health LaPorte and Starke Hospitals continues to work through an affiliation phase with Community Health Systems.
The announcement was made in March of this year, but before any agreements can be finalized, due diligence must first be completed. Work to verify information about the hospital group by Community Health systems has been going on for several months.
Communications Coordinator Stacey Kellogg says that things are going well.
“We look at just about everything across the board, our strategy moving forward, and we decide together as this three-way partnership comes together: how do we make it happen? Is it going to work for us? And how do we make it work?” says Kellogg.
Community Health Systems is among the major healthcare providers in the nation.
Once the due diligence phase has been completed, an agreement to affiliate IU Health Starke and LaPorte hospitals with CHS will be worked on. According to Kellogg, that contract could be signed somewhere between October and January.
She says there’s always a risk things could take longer.
“We have not encountered anything right now that we think is going to push this project farther along than we thought, or to take more time than we though,” says Kellogg. “Community Health System has, so far, the information they’re receiving matches the story that we’ve told.”
IU Health Starke and LaPorte Hospitals say business is continuing as usual and that the growth of the hospitals is also continuing.
Kellogg says details may be released next week about a new facility at IU Health Starke Hospital that is in the works.
