Jellico Community Hospital getting new owner

Jellico Community Hospital (JCH) will soon be under new ownership.

Rennova Health Inc., which is located in West Palm Beach, Florida, announced Monday to that it had entered into a definitive asset purchase agreement to acquire Jellico Community Hospital and its CarePlus Center in Williamsburg.

The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2019, subject to customary regulatory approvals and closing conditions.

“Rennova’s presence in Tennessee includes Big South Fork Medical Center in Oneida and Jamestown Regional Medical Center (JRMC) in Jamestown, enabling synergies and efficiencies across neighboring healthcare providers. JCH continues to provide quality care and superior service to the community, a tradition that began more than 40 years ago,” Jellico Community Hospital announced on its Facebook page Monday.

Rennova provides industry-leading diagnostics and supportive software solutions to healthcare providers, delivering an efficient, effective patient experience and superior clinical outcomes. Through an ever-expanding group of strategic brands that work in unison to empower customers, the company is creating the next generation of healthcare, according to a news release posted on its website.

“This third hospital is situated near our Oneida and Jamestown based hospitals and further expands our footprint in the rural hospital sector in keeping with our business strategy,” said Seamus Lagan, CEO of Rennova.

“We believe having a number of hospitals in the same geographic location creates a number of synergies and efficiencies and we look forward to this acquisition adding to revenue and value in the first quarter of 2019.”

OB unit closing

Jellico Community Hospital announced on Nov. 20 that its board of directors at its meeting that day made the decision to close the hospital’s OB services unit effective at midnight on Dec. 9.

“Keeping a labor and delivery unit operating is harder for rural hospitals like ours and reimbursement cuts are posing a strain. Medicaid is our major payer for deliveries and newborn care, but Tennessee did not expand Medicaid and we are not able to subsidize this program on our own,” Interim CEO Gene Miller said in a Nov. 20 release on the hospital’s Facebook page.

“We did not take this decision lightly but it is necessary for the greater good of our hospital. We empathize with the expectant mothers in our community who were planning to give birth here at Jellico in the coming months. We will work with local physicians to provide the continuation of their care with other providers.

What impact, if any, the hospital’s sale will have on the OB unit closing is unclear.

In 2014, the hospital completed an 18-month, $100,000 effort to update and renovate its labor and delivery/women’s health unit. It is unknown what recent figures are, but in 2013 the hospital welcomed 200 babies.

Over 40 years of service

Jellico Community Hospital has been serving the region since 1974 and it is a fully operational 54-bed acute care facility that offers comprehensive services, including diagnostic imaging, radiology, surgery (general, gynecological and vascular), nuclear medicine, wound care and hyperbaric medicine, intensive care, emergency care, and physical therapy.

In 2015, Jellico Community Hospital was one of 251 hospitals out of 3,500 across the country to receive a “5-star” rating for patient satisfaction, according to a Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Provider and Systems (HCAHPS) survey conducted by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

CarePlus is an outpatient clinic in Williamsburg offering primary care, diagnostic imaging and laboratory services, which opened in Williamsburg in March 2010.

In late April 2014, Adventist Health Systems informed Jellico Community Hospital’s board of directors that after 40 years it was severing ties with the hospital due to healthcare reform and financial reasons. The hospital had until May 1, 2015 to find another healthcare partner.

On May 1, 2015, the Jellico Community Hospital and the CarePlus Center officially became part of the Community Hospital Corporation’s (CHC) network of hospitals, which is a company out of Plano, Texas. CHC also entered into a clinical affiliation agreement with Baptist Health.

Miller announced in a July 11, 2018, release on the hospital’s website that Jellico Community Hospital’s Board of Directors and Community Hospital Corporation were working diligently on strategic options for the hospital, and multiple groups were interested in a strategic partnership with the hospital.