Wellstar Health System announced it has ended merger negotiations with Emory Healthcare, Atlanta Business Chronicle reports. The proposed merger failed to fit into Wellstar’s “new strategic direction,” according to Gary Miller, chairman of the system’s board of trustees.
“WellStar has declined to enter the next stage of discussions with Emory University,” Miller said. “We respect Emory University as a leading, international academic medical center. WellStar will accelerate multiple horizontal and vertical integration opportunities with other potential partners.”
In the wake of Wellstar’s decision, Emory Healthcare released the following statement: “Emory continues to believe that the proposed combination of Emory Healthcare and WellStar Health System would serve our communities well as a way to extend the benefits of our renowned academic medical center to a larger population of patients in Metro Atlanta, as well as the state of Georgia and beyond.”
Back in February, Emory University and WellStar Health System announced formal discussions to combine Emory Healthcare, an entity owned by Emory University, and WellStar Health System into a new, unified health system. The unified health system could create a new, innovative healthcare system combined with the best of community-based care and academic medicine.
