Tenet Healthcare, parent company of ASC chain United Surgical Partners International, is navigating a stretch of activity, from a new hospital lease in East Texas to a landmark labor deal covering nearly 3,000 California nurses.
The Dallas-based health system is also welcoming a new finance executive and won a lawsuit against a prominent hospital safety rating organization.
Mergers
Nacogdoches County Hospital District in Nacogdoches, Texas, unanimously approved a new lease agreement with Tenet on Feb. 27, the Nacogdoches Daily Sentinel reported. The 15-year deal designates Nacogdoches Memorial Hospital and Cecil R. Bomar Rehabilitation Center as campuses of Tenet-operated Nacogdoches Medical Center, with Tenet assuming daily operations of the Memorial Hospital.
Labor deal ratified
Registered nurses at six Tenet facilities in California ratified a new three-year contract on March 26 with 93% support. The agreement covers nearly 3,000 nurses at San Ramon Regional Medical Center, Doctors Hospital Manteca, Doctors Medical Center in Modesto, Emanuel Medical Center in Turlock, Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs and Hi-Desert Medical Center in Twentynine Palms, and runs from July 1, 2025, through June 30, 2028.
Under the deal, each facility will have a dedicated rapid response nurse, and new nurses will receive a guaranteed minimum orientation period. Nurses will also see wage increases of 11% to 18% over the contract’s three years, with no reductions to healthcare benefits.
Leadership changes
Tenet named J. Michael Grooms senior vice president and controller, effective April 6, and principal accounting officer, effective May 1. Grooms joins from LifePoint Health in Brentwood, Tenn., where he served as chief accounting officer since 2018.
Leapfrog lawsuit
A federal judge ordered The Leapfrog Group on March 6 to withdraw fall 2024, spring 2025 and fall 2025 safety grades for five Tenet-operated hospitals in Palm Beach (Fla.) Health Network.
Following the ruling, Leapfrog told Becker’s on March 16 that it has more broadly pulled recent safety grades for U.S. hospitals that have not participated in its surveys, a step that goes beyond what the court required. Leapfrog said it expects to resume full grading in fall 2026. The organization, which said the ruling threatens its First Amendment rights, plans to appeal.
“Although the court ruling only applied to five hospitals, Leapfrog does not apply programmatic changes to individual hospitals because the hospital safety grade is a national program. We expect to resume full grading in fall 2026,” Leapfrog said in a March 16 statement. “For over 25 years, the Leapfrog hospital safety grade has driven real, measurable improvements in patient safety and that mission has not changed. Patients deserve to know how safe their hospital is and Leapfrog will never stop fighting for it.”
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