Aug. 21—JEFFERSONVILLE — Norton Healthcare is fully acquiring Clark Memorial Health and Scott Memorial Health, ending a joint partnership with LifePoint Health.
Clark Memorial Health announced Monday that LifePoint and Norton have signed an agreement to shift the full ownership of the two hospitals to Norton.
LifePoint and Norton have previously partnered in ownership and operations of the Jeffersonville and Scottsburg hospitals through a joint venture called the Regional Health Network of Kentucky and Southern Indiana.
According to the news release, the agreement will be "finalized in the coming weeks."
"Norton Healthcare will expand specialty services in these locations and will make investments in workforce development and professional growth for employees," the news release states. "Patients will continue to access the hospitals in the same ways they do now and they can continue to see their same physicians."
"Together, the organizations look forward to exploring opportunities to have an even greater impact on the future of health care in the communities served."
Clark County Health Officer Dr. Eric Yazel said he is looking forward to the transition. He is also an emergency physician and board member for Clark Memorial Health.
"I've been a physician in the area for years, and I've always had a lot of respect for Norton," he said. "We had a degree of a partnership with them already. But just to kind of strengthen that and have that local footprint in Southern Indiana — I think that's going to be a great move for the hospital and the community."
Yazel noted opportunities for Clark Memorial Health as it becomes a full member of the Norton system.
"Being a full partner, that will help expand some of the healthcare resources in the community — enhance specialty care, things like that— and just streamline a lot of the processes as far as getting people testing and care that they need."
He is confident that it will be a "smooth transition" that the "average healthcare consumer will not even notice."
"I think there will be no interruptions in care," Yazel said. "I think everything will be smooth, and you'll just gradually see some enhanced services and some different marketing and all those kinds of things."