BayCare signs deal to acquire Bartow Regional Medical

BayCare Health System signed an agreement in mid-October to acquire Bartow Regional Medical Center. The 72-bed Bartow facility and its related physician clinics and outpatient care facilities are currently owned by the for-profit Community Health Systems.

The transaction, which is expected to close by the end of the year, will give Clearwater-based BayCare its second hospital in Polk County.

“Winter Haven Hospital, which was established in 1926, integrated with Baycare on August 30, 2013," says Amy Lovett of BayCare Health System. “This agreement provides us the opportunity to have a second hospital in Polk County, which helps us anchor other health services needed by this large and growing county.”

 While Lovett would not go into detail about what kind of financial impact this transaction will have on BayCare, according to a news release from the healthcare organization, connecting Bartow Regional Medical Center with Winter Haven Hospital and South Florida Baptist Hospital in Plant City, a triad of BayCare hospitals offer a continuum of broader community health services in Eastern Hillsborough and Polk County.

BayCare currently has 13 hospitals and hundreds of physician clinics and outpatient care facilities throughout the Tampa Bay and central Florida regions. Founded in 1997, with 23,600 employees, the not-for-profit healthcare system runs local hospitals including Morton Plant in Clearwater, Morton Plant North Bay in New Port Richey, St. Anthony’s in St. Petersburg, St. Joseph’s in Tampa, St. Joseph’s North in Lutz, St. Joseph’s South in Riverview, Mease Dunedin and Mease Countryside near Safety Harbor.