Wise Health System officially sold to Medical City

A NEW DAY — Wise Health System has officially been sold to Medical City Healthcare, and the change was celebrated with the unveiling of the new sign outside the hospital in Decatur Friday morning. BRIAN KNOX/WCMESSENGER

Nearly one year after Wise Health System (WHS) announced its plans to enter into negotiations with Medical City Healthcare, the local hospital chain was officially sold this week.

The WHS governing board began working on an acquisition deal Jan. 3 with Medical City Healthcare, a division of HCA Healthcare. According to HCA’s website,  its network is comprised of over 180 hospitals, 2,300-plus sites of care and has locations in 20 different states and the United Kingdom. It is the largest for-profit hospital chain in the nation.

“We are very pleased to expand our circle of care to Wise County,” Medical City Healthcare President Allen Harrison said in a news release. “As part of HCA Healthcare, these facilities will now have access to best practices from more than 180 affiliated hospitals, which means more solutions, more medical advances and more possibilities to provide exceptional care to every patient who walks through the doors.”

On Friday, local hospital employees and North Texas Medical City Healthcare staff held a ceremony to unveil the new sign and name: Medical City Decatur.

“We’re excited about what the future holds,” Harrison told those gathered for the event. “It’s been a lot of work to get to this day, and there are a lot of folks — I can’t single everybody out — there’s been a lot of folks who put in a lot of time and labor, folks on our side, folks with (WHS CEO) Jason (Wren) and his team, the board, everybody has worked hard, so here we stand, excited about becoming and remaining the destination of choice for healthcare in the Wise community.”

When asked if Medical City Decatur would offer any additional services, Harrison said, “We don’t anticipate any immediate expansion of services,” but said there are longer-term plans to add services at the Decatur location.

The purchase expands HCA’s medical coverage in Texas to 51 hospitals, with 16 Medical City locations in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. WHS has three standalone hospitals in Decatur, Argyle and Parkway, and a combined 186 beds. The Argyle location will now be known as Medical City Argyle (A campus of Medical City Denton) and the Parkway hospital will now be called Medical City Surgical Hospital Alliance (A Campus of Medical City Alliance).

The sale to Medical City will help ensure the hospital’s future, WHS Governing Board Chairman Carey Williams said in a news release.

“Building on our legacy of compassionate care, joining Medical City Healthcare is a crucial, proactive measure to ensure our future,” Williams said. “As part of Medical City Healthcare, I am confident our hospitals will continue to provide outstanding care to our Wise County community and patients for years to come.”

Over the months leading up to Friday’s acquisition, the downturn in the WHS financial situation became increasingly evident, as the hospital experienced dips in revenue. Fitch Report dropped the WHS credit rating to a B-plus in its Sept. 29 report, a three-level decline from the prior rating. Between the Jan. 3 sale announcement and October, the local hospital chain’s staff decreased by roughly 14 percent, through both layoffs or positions remaining vacant after employees left on their own accord. 

Since the announcement of the plans to sell, Wren has described the acquisition as a way to ensure that there is a financially viable hospital in Wise County, while also meeting the growing demands as Wise County continues to grow. NBC News reported last year that HCA employs 284,000 people in 182 hospitals and 125 surgery centers between the United States and England. In its Q3 report, HCA shared that it had $16.213 billion in revenue for the period ending Sept. 30, and $54.589 billion in assets with $39.346 billion of debt.

Medical City’s acquisition of WHS does not include the Fit-N-Wise Rehabilitation and Performance Center (which will still be operated by the Decatur Hospital Authority) or the WHS Cancer Center. In a November press release from Medical City, the healthcare provider said medical oncology services, like chemotherapy, will move to the main campus beginning Dec. 1, 2023.

The new Medical City Decatur will not offer radiation services. Medical City spokesperson Kathleen Beathard said patients will be referred to oncology providers who best meet their needs. The closest centers for Wise County patients in need of radiation include the Texas Oncology and the Center for Cancer, which each have locations in Denton, Fort Worth and Weatherford.

Wren said the public shouldn’t expect any changes at Fit-N-Wise.

“It should be business as usual over there,” he said.

The Decatur Hospital Authority created the Decatur Community Hospital in 1974, later changing the name to Wise Health System. Wren said the Decatur Hospital Authority will need to spend some time figuring out their new mission.

“Of course, first and foremost is just to wind up some of their prior operations, and that will take some time,” he said. “Fit-N-Wise will be the main thing they’re operating in the foreseeable future, but over time we expect them to be able to start serving the community in other ways, but they are going to have to spend some time figuring out what that new mission is.”