San Francisco-based Dignity Health is acquiring a Valencia, Calif.-based occupational medicine and urgent care system that had been looking for a partner to help it expand. As Catholic Health World went to press, Dignity Health was set to buy U.S. HealthWorks from the investment companies Altaris Capital Partners and Three Arch Partners in August.
Dignity Health would not disclose the purchase price.
U.S. HealthWorks operates 172 occupational medicine, urgent care and specialty care facilities in 16 states. The system bills itself as the nation's largest independent operator of occupational medicine and urgent care centers. Its occupational medicine centers provide preventive care, rehabilitative care, employment-related screenings and other services for the employees of its clients. Its urgent care centers provide basic health care services to patients, including the uninsured — the centers have a low-cost, self-pay option. U.S. HealthWorks' specialty services include orthopedics, spinal specialties, pain management, plastic surgery, neurology and podiatry.
Dignity Health, which operates 40 hospitals in Arizona, California and Nevada, is acquiring the occupational medicine and urgent care network as part of a strategy to become a national, integrated health care system, according to Dignity Health administrators. They said there is a great potential for growth in the occupational medicine and urgent care field — these outpatient centers are a cost-effective setting for delivering care, system administrators said.