Dive Brief:
- UPMC announced a 50% strategic investment in Salvator Mundi International Hospital, a private facility near the center of Rome.
- The deal will expand specialized treatments, including cancer care, to patients in central and southern Italy.
- The 75-bed hospital has about 2,400 admissions and performs about 3,000 surgeries and procedures each year. UPMC will oversee clinical operations, including naming the medical director and chief operating officer, according to a statement from the company.
Dive Insight:
The Rome investment is the most recent sign of major U.S. hospitals looking to expand their brand and create new revenue streams overseas. Last month, Crain’s Cleveland Business reported Cleveland Clinic had signed a management consulting agreement with a business interested in opening a hospital in Shanghai, China. The deal would be the first Clinic’s first global affiliation in a program called Cleveland Clinic Connected.
Salvator Mundi is the latest investment for UPMC International, a branch of Pittsburgh-based UPMC. The health system has ventures in nine countries, including Ireland, China, Kazakhstan and Colombia. In 2014, UPMC inked a 15-year management agreement with GK Klinika Group in Lithuania to design and manage a new cancer center in the capital, Vilnius. The facility was slated to open this year.
UPMC’s ties to Rome go back to 1996, when it helped create a transplant center in Palermo. It also has a biomedical research and biotechnology center in Palermo, a radiotherapy center in Rome and a medical center in Tuscany.
UPMC reported revenues of $14.4 billion in fiscal year 2017, a $1 billion increase over the previous year. Most of the growth was due to higher enrollment in its insurance business, UPMC Health Plan. That was countered by a 22.5% drop in operating income for the year.
The system has been on a buying spree lately, acquiring Sunbury Community Hospital and Lock Haven Hospital from Quorum Health and, in August, Pinnacle Health.
UPMC did not disclose the amount of the investment in Salvator Mundi.