LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) — Sparrow Health System announced Monday it has officially joined University of Michigan Health.
The two organizations said they have “received the necessary regulatory approvals to partner” and officially joined on April 1.
In December, Michigan Medicine, the University of Michigan’s health system, announced plans to buy Sparrow Health System.
According to James Dover, the President and CEO of Sparrow Health, the purchase is not a buy-out.
“There is no purchase price this is a member substitution agreement,” said Dover. “So the sole member of our corporations becomes University Michigan Medical Health as expressed through the Regents of the University of Michigan.”
As part of the deal, U of M Health committed $800 million in investments to Sparrow Health System over the next eight years, according to a release.
The first department that Sparrow hopes to make improvements in is plastic surgery.
“We want to treat to complex cancer patients here, like head and neck, breast cancer, etc., as well as complicated reconstructive surgeries,” continued Dover.
Prior to the deal being made, Sparrow had announced plans to lay off “several hundreds” of workers. Dover said that he does not expect any layoffs as a part of the merger.
“Believe it or not we are very short on anesthesiologists in our region we have had trouble recruiting,” Dover said. “We actually have a couple of or shut down right now because of our lack of anesthesiology.”
Sparrow Health System Board Chair John Pirich said that every Sparrow patient will have access to past physicians.
“The good news is there will be an enhancement of opportunities for specialist care,” said Pirich.
