CONTACT: Jessika Kasten, Meriter-UnityPoint Health
(608) 516-2256
Lisa Brunette, UW Health
(608) 263-5830
MADISON – Meriter-UnityPoint Health® has signed an agreement to become a partner in the new UW Health Rehabilitation Hospital that recently opened on the city’s east side. The hospital is currently jointly owned and operated by UW Health and Kindred Healthcare, the nation’s largest diversified provider of post-acute care.
“This new rehabilitation facility offers Meriter an opportunity to work with partners to transform care locally, preserving access and quality and channeling resources into a new state-of-the-art, dedicated facility,” said Art Nizza, president and CEO of Meriter-UnityPoint Health. “Our joint efforts will ensure that this facility is a regional destination for inpatient rehab care.”
The 50-bed, free-standing hospital opened in late September. It includes a brain-injury unit, with monitored rooms and specialized equipment; a dedicated stroke unit; two large gymnasiums; and an adaptive kitchen and “functional living” apartment suite for patients and families to practice living independently before the patient returns home.
The current 16-bed Meriter inpatient rehab unit will close in late January 2016. Meriter will continue to offer outpatient therapy and outpatient rehabilitation medicine services.
“We are happy to welcome Meriter as a partner in the new hospital,” said Dr. Jeff Grossman, interim CEO of UW Health. “The physicians from UW and Meriter will work together for the best patient outcomes.”
“Adding Meriter as a partner is an example of how health care organizations can work together to wisely use resources and share expertise to best serve the region,” said Greg Banaszynski, CEO of UW Health Rehabilitation Hospital.
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ABOUT MERITER-UNITYPOINT HEALTH®
Meriter – UnityPoint Health provides comprehensive, coordinated care to patients throughout the Greater Madison area through our clinics, hospital and home care services. Employing nearly 3,300 people, Meriter offers primary and specialty care, including heart and vascular, orthopedics, women’s health, and the busiest birthing center in Wisconsin. Meriter was named a 100 Top Hospital by Truven Health Analytics, is a 2014 recipient of the National Research Corporations’ Top Rated Pediatric Doctors award, a five-time winner of the Most Wired award and In Business magazine’s 2014 Top Company to Work For. For more information, visit meriter.com .
ABOUT UW HEALTH
UW Health is the integrated health system associated with the University of Wisconsin- Madison. With 1,400 physicians and 16,500 staff at six hospitals and 80 outpatient sites, it serves more than 600,000 patients each year in Wisconsin, northern Illinois and beyond. Consistently recognized as one of the nation’s leading academic health centers, UW Health is home to a Level One adult and pediatric trauma center, American College of Surgeons-verified Burn Center, one of the nation’s largest organ transplant programs, one of the nation’s first certified comprehensive stroke centers and the UW Carbone Cancer Center, one of 41 National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive centers in the country. To learn more, visit uwhealth.org .
ABOUT KINDRED HEALTHCARE
Kindred Healthcare, Inc., a top-95 private employer in the United States, is a FORTUNE 500 healthcare services company based in Louisville, Kentucky with annual revenues of approximately $7.2 billion(1). At September 30, 2015, Kindred through its subsidiaries had approximately 102,200 employees providing healthcare services in 2,723 locations in 47 states, including 95 transitional care hospitals, 18 inpatient rehabilitation hospitals, 90 nursing centers, 20 sub-acute units, 626 Kindred at Home home health, hospice and non-medical home care sites of service, 101 inpatient rehabilitation units (hospital-based) and a contract rehabilitation services business, RehabCare, which served 1,773 non-affiliated sites of service. Ranked as one of Fortune magazine’s Most Admired Healthcare Companies for six years, Kindred’s mission is to promote healing, provide hope, preserve dignity and produce value for each patient, resident, family member, customer, employee and shareholder we serve. For more information, go to http://www.kindredhealthcare.com. You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook.
