Joint Venture Creates Second-Largest Home Health Provider in Western Pennsylvania

This week, officials from two Pennsylvania health care networks announced a joint venture that will combine the home health and hospice assets of each organization to create one of the largest post-acute providers in Western Penn.

Allegheny Health Network (AHN) and Mars, Penn.-based Celtic Healthcare, Inc. proclaimed their joint venture formation Tuesday to create a fully integrated post-acute care provider under the AHN brand and managed by Celtic’s support service and leadership team.

“Celtic is an exceptionally well-managed, innovative and forward-thinking company that shares our patient-centered values and represents the ideal partner to help us achieve that vision,” said John Paul, CEO of AHN, in a written statement.

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Founded in 1995, Celtic Healthcare provides Medicare-certified skilled home health and hospice services throughout Western, Central and Northeast Pennsylvania, Montgomery and Baltimore counties in Maryland, along with parts of Missouri and Illinois.

Though the joint venture with AHN only involves Celtic’s Western Pennsylvania operations, AHN’s Paul said the opportunity to partner with Celtic will further strengthen and advance the Network’s scope of resources and services for patients, in turn helping them stay at home longer and ease their transition from hospital back to their communities.

“Our goal is to ensure that every patient we care for has access to a continuum of high quality services that extend far beyond the walls of the hospital, that allows us to transition patients back to the comfort of their homes and communities sooner and that helps us keep them there for the duration of their recovery, ongoing care or end-of-life support,” he said.

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With eight hospitals, more than 2,100 affiliated physicians and more than 200 outpatient facilities and offices in the greater Pittsburgh and Erie, Penn. markets, AHN is one of the state’s largest integrated healthcare delivery systems.

Annually, the network’s facilities perform more than 85,000 surgical procedures, discharge approximately 90,000 patients and log more than 1.2 million outpatient visits, according to AHN data.

The Network owns and operates Western Pennsylvania’s fourth largest home care and hospice programs by volume. When combined with Celtic’s Western Pennsylvania operations, the newly formed joint venture will become the second largest provider of home care and hospice services in the region.

For Celtic, the joint venture is not only an opportunity to shape integrated healthcare in the Pittsburgh region, but will allow the company to serve more patients at home, said Arnie Burchianti, founder and CEO of Celtic Healthcare.

“We will work with AHN to collaborate more efficiently and effectively to transition patients home with better clinical outcomes, create cost-savings to our entire healthcare system, and most importantly to achieve greater patient and family satisfaction,” Burchianti said in a written statement. “We look forward to this journey with AHN and with our patients and their families in our Western PA communities.”

Written by Jason Oliva

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