It’s been a busy year for mergers and acquisitions in the Hospital sector, and it’s not over yet. Our preliminary figures show 101 transactions with a combined deal value of $8.7 billion. At least two announced transactions have been terminated, and there are still a few to track down, so those numbers will change.

Of those 101 deals, 89 acquirers were other hospitals or health systems. One was a behavioral health company, Sovereign Health Group, which runs residential treatment centers for mental health and substance abuse patients through its affiliate, Ashland Properties LLC. Private equity firms made six acquisitions, and REITs made five. The largest of those REIT transactions was Ventas‘ (NYSE: VTR) $1.75 billion deal for Ardent Health Services and its 10 hospitals. Ventas promptly spun off 91.1% of the hospital operations to Equity Group Investments LLC for $475 million.

We’ll have much more detail for you when we return in 2016, so stay tuned.