Penn Highlands Healthcare, a not-for-profit health system located through northern Pennsylvania, has added another facility under its banner. Highlands Hospital, formerly known as Cottage State Hospital, has agreed to join the Penn Highlands network, which is expected to take full effect in early 2022.
Highlands Hospital provides patient care as a non-profit general acute care hospital located in Laurel Highlands of Southwestern Pennsylvania. Highlands Hospital is in affiliation with Cleveland Clinic Children’s Center for Autism helps to provide families educational and behavioral treatment.
The hospital has 61 beds and generated approximately $26.7 million in revenue in 2020, but the hospital was in real financial trouble, according to reporting done by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. It highlighted a study from the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council that Highlands Hospital had an operating loss of 32.16% for fiscal 2020. To put that in context, the statewide operating margin for hospitals in 2020 was 3.73%.
Penn Highlands, however, has been growing steadily over the past few years. It currently has a network of six hospitals, and its business continuum also includes a home care agency, Penn Highlands Community Nurses, two long-term care facilities, Pinecrest Manor and Penn Highlands Jefferson Manor and a senior residential living facility, Elco Glen. The health system employs about 5,600 workers at more than 150 locations in 39 Pennsylvania counties.
In October, Penn Highlands closed on a merger agreement with Monongahela Valley Hospital in Monongahela, Pennsylvania, a 200-bed health facility and the largest employer in the mid-Monongahela Valley region and the third-largest employer in Washington County.
