St. Barnabas Healthcare Center has been bought by Siskin Hospital for Physical Rehabilitation.

Siskin Hospital for Physical Rehabilitation completed its purchase of the neighboring St. Barnabas Healthcare Center this week, doubling the size of Chattanooga's biggest rehabilitation hospital.

Siskin President Carol Sim said Friday that Siskin will invest several hundred thousand dollars to upgrade St. Barnabas' facility and infrastructure. Sims said the two nonprofit facilities will integrate some operations over the summer but maintain separate buildings, connected by a bridge and parking lot near Erlanger Medical Center.

"The joining of St. Barnabas and Siskin Hospital is an important investment in our future," Sim said in a statement. "As the healthcare world changes, it is ever more important for us to think of ourselves as in the 'rehabilitation' business, not just in the 'rehabilitation hospital' business. Patients and insurers are looking for more options for rehabilitation, mostly focused on how to ensure the highest level of recovery for the lowest cost, and the beds at St. Barnabas give us another option to offer them."

The purchase was completed Tuesday after gaining regulatory approval from the Tennessee Attorney General's office and the Tennessee Division of Healthcare Facilities.

Siskin Hospital, a not-for-profit hospital started in 1989, will now increase in size from a 109-bed rehabilitation hospital to 217 beds with the addition of 108 subacute and nursing home beds at St. Barnabas. The nursing home facility's name is now St. Barnabas at Siskin Hospital.

"Over the next several months, we will work to integrate our operations where it makes sense and leave separate and distinct those areas where that is best," Sim said. "This will be a work in progress."

All St. Barnabas employees who met Siskin Hospital's standard employment requirements have become Siskin Hospital employees.

"This acquisition will enable us to viably grow our organization for years to come. We are enthusiastically embracing the opportunity of becoming a part of the Siskin Hospital team," said David Wildgen, president and CEO of St. Barnabas.

Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or at 757-6340

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