Encompass Health and MUSC Health plan to own and operate Encompass Health Rehabilitation Hospital of Charleston as a joint venture
August 25, 2020
Encompass Health Corp. (NYSE: EHC) and MUSC Health announced plans to own and operate Encompass Health Rehabilitation Hospital of Charleston, Encompass Health’s existing inpatient rehabilitation hospital in North Charleston, South Carolina, as a joint venture. The facility will be renamed and operate as MUSC Health Rehabilitation Hospital, an affiliate of Encompass Health.
Encompass Health Rehabilitation Hospital of Charleston, which is located at 9181 Medcom Street, has served the community since 1993. Complementing local acute care services like those provided by MUSC Health, the 49-bed hospital provides physical, occupational and speech therapies as well as 24‑hour nursing care that aim to restore functional ability and quality of life. The hospital serves patients recovering from debilitating illnesses and injuries including strokes, brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, amputations and complex orthopedic conditions.
“The residents of our state are affected by a high incidence of serious illnesses that often require intensive rehabilitation services,” said Patrick J. Cawley, M.D., CEO of MUSC Health and vice president for Health Affairs, University. “Through our collaboration with Encompass Health, we have the ability to expand services that are designed to maximize our patients’ recoveries and levels of function.”
Encompass Health will continue to manage the hospital operations and its employees. MUSC Health currently operates inpatient rehabilitation beds in both its Florence and Lancaster markets, but does not have this capability in Charleston. This jointly owned hospital offers opportunities to enhance access and care coordination for MUSC’s Charleston-area patients requiring rehabilitation services.
“Another important aspect of this collaboration is our ability to increase educational opportunities for various healthcare professionals in Encompass Health hospitals and other patient care settings across the state,” said Lisa K. Saladin, PT, Ph.D., executive vice president for Academic Affairs and Provost at the Medical University of South Carolina. “We look forward to placing MUSC medical, nursing, pharmacy and therapy students, among others, in educational rotations where they will develop a variety of clinical skills.
The operation of the hospital as a joint venture is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals.
About Encompass Health
As a national leader in integrated healthcare services, Encompass Health (NYSE: EHC) offers both facility-based and home-based patient care through its network of inpatient rehabilitation hospitals, home health agencies and hospice agencies. With a national footprint that includes 136 hospitals, 245 home health locations, and 83 hospice locations in 39 states and Puerto Rico, the Company is committed to delivering high-quality, cost-effective, integrated care across the healthcare continuum. Encompass Health is ranked as one of Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For. For more information, visit encompasshealth.com, or follow us on our newsroom, Twitter and Facebook.
About MUSC Health
Founded in 1824 in Charleston, MUSC is the oldest medical school in the South, as well as the state’s only integrated, academic health sciences center with a unique charge to serve the state through education, research and patient care. Each year, MUSC educates and trains more than 3,000 students and nearly 800 residents in six colleges: Dental Medicine, Graduate Studies, Health Professions, Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy. The state’s leader in obtaining biomedical research funds, in fiscal year 2019, MUSC set a new high, bringing in more than $284 million. For information on academic programs, visit musc.edu.
As the clinical health system of the Medical University of South Carolina, MUSC Health is dedicated to delivering the highest quality patient care available, while training generations of competent, compassionate health care providers to serve the people of South Carolina and beyond. Comprising some 1,600 beds, more than 100 outreach sites, the MUSC College of Medicine, the physicians’ practice plan, and nearly 275 telehealth locations, MUSC Health owns and operates eight hospitals situated in Charleston, Chester, Florence, Lancaster and Marion counties. In 2020, for the sixth consecutive year, U.S. News & World Report named MUSC Health the No. 1 hospital in South Carolina. To learn more about clinical patient services, visit muschealth.org.
MUSC and its affiliates have collective annual budgets of $3.2 billion. The more than 17,000 MUSC team members include world-class faculty, physicians, specialty providers and scientists who deliver groundbreaking education, research, technology and patient care.
