Tenet Healthcare has signed an agreement to sell Alvarado Hospital Medical Center for $36.5 million to Plymouth Health, a company formed by two brother doctors specifically to purchase the hospital.
The announcement was made early Oct. 27, and the 300-bed hospital will continue operating as an acute care facility with a 24-hour emergency room, according to both Tenet and Plymouth.
Tenet and Plymouth also reported that “substantially all” current employees in good standing will continue employment at the hospital, which serves a community of about 900,000 people in East County. The hospital has about 1,000 employees, plus a 500-member medical staff.
Tenet was forced by the federal government to sell Alvarado by February or close the facility. The orders came after lawsuits that charged the hospital broke anti-kickback laws. For example, the settlement for one suit said Alvarado officials gave money to new doctors for office improvements that were never made. Two trials in recent years ended in hung juries.
The founders of Plymouth Health are doctors Pejman Salimpour and Pedram Salimpour. The brothers also own CareNex Health Services, a Los Angeles-based technology and client services organization specializing in business process outsourcing, disease management programs and patient-physician communication services.
Pejman Salimpour is a professor of clinical pediatrics at the UCLA School of Medicine and former clinical chief of pediatrics at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He is a member of the National Latino Healthcare Task Force and the National Advisory Council of the U.S. Small Business Administration.
Pedram Salimpour is the first person to have twice received the American College of Physicians Research Award.
The sale of the hospital will not become final for 60-90 days, according to the two companies.
, Katie Weeks
