Heritage Valley hospitals join Allegheny Health Network

Heritage Valley Health System is merging with Allegheny Health Network, adding a 15th and 16th hospital to AHN's growing presence in Western Pennsylvania. 

Leaders from both health systems signed an affiliation agreement at a celebration at Heritage's Beaver Hospital on Thursday.

A crowd of local leaders and hospital employees joined in the celebration.

For Heritage's CEO Norm Mitry, Thursday helps bring his time in Beaver full circle. He joined the Beaver Hospital in 1995 as an executive and got to work linking it with Sewickley Hospital. Heritage Valley Health System was launched the next year. 

"Today is, like, extremely rewarding," he said. "It means we will continue to be here."

Describing it as a historic day, local leaders stressed how important the hospitals are to the community. 

The Beaver Hospital sees 60,000 emergency room patients a year, the Sewickley Hospital sees 35,000 emergency room patients and their walk-in clinics see another 80,000.

A merger with AHN made sense in part because of strong relationships that exist.

Without a partner, Mitry said the Beaver hospital would have stayed around in some form, but would have had to cut back on a number of services, including potentially open heart surgeries. It comes down to resources, he said.

"Ever since COVID, it's been hard to get those resources. It's been hard to recruit and retain physicians because you're constantly competing with Allegheny Health Network and UPMC for physicians," Mitry said. 

Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato also spoke during the event Thursday, pointing out the role the Sewickley Hospital serves in Allegheny County.

"This merger is so important to Allegheny County because the western side of our county is actually growing, and with that growth, people need access to care," she said.

Innamorato also said that she's excited by how jobs will be preserved and that AHN is great "friends of labor."

AHN's top executive, Mark Sevco, said patients can expect world-class care.

"This partnership, it will benefit both organizations, but more importantly, it will improve the health and well-being of the communities we serve and provide long-term sustainability to the hospitals, to the clinicians, to the clinics and all the practices at Heritage Valley and AHN," Sevco said.

For Mitry, the merger serves as the fulfillment of a lesson a board member taught him years ago. 

"As my career is somewhat wrapping up because of my age, I want to leave it better than I found it," Mitry said. "So, you know, of course, you're always going to say, you know, it's a little bit different, but I am leaving it better than I found it." 

For the merger to fully close, it needs regulatory approval, which could take 4-12 months, Mitry said.