Henry Ford Health expands footprint, adds eight Ascension hospital campuses
- Henry Ford Health and Ascension Michigan have entered a joint venture
- Now, Henry Ford Health employs over 50,000 employees across over 500 locations in Michigan.
- Officials said the joint venture is not expected to impact jobs or patient costs.
In the latest of health-care consolidations, Detroit-based Henry Ford Health has absorbed eight Michigan hospital campuses previously owned by the financially embattled Ascension Michigan.
The deal, which Henry Ford characterized as a “joint venture” was officially completed, hospital leaders announced Tuesday, 11 months after the deal was originally announced. The deal combines two of the state’s largest health-care organizations into a single, $12 billion health-care system employing more than 50,000 clinicians and support staff.
The sites will operate under the Henry Ford name.
Joining the Henry Ford network
Acute-care hospitals:
- Ascension Genesys Hospital (now Henry Ford Genesys Hospital)
- Ascension Macomb – Oakland Hospital, Warren and Madison Heights campuses (now Henry Ford Warren Hospital and Henry Ford Madison Heights Hospital)
- Ascension Providence Hospital, Novi and Southfield campuses (now Henry Ford Providence Novi Hospital and Henry Ford Providence Southfield Hospital)
- Ascension Providence Rochester Hospital (now Henry Ford Rochester Hospital)
- Ascension River District Hospital (now Henry Ford River District Hospital)
- Ascension St. John Hospital (now Henry Ford St. John Hospital)
Henry Ford also absorbs the Ascension Brighton Center for Recovery, which provides inpatient and outpatient treatment for substance use disorders.
"This is truly a historic day for our organization and for the entire state of Michigan," Bob Riney, president and CEO of Henry Ford Health, said during a press conference Tuesday morning.
"We’ll expand care throughout all of the communities of southeast Michigan and Genesee County … and to improve health outcomes for people across the entire state of Michigan,” he said at the newly renamed Henry Ford St. John Hospital on Detroit's east side.
Related:
- Henry Ford, Ascension Michigan to partner in latest health care shift
- Experts: Henry Ford, Ascension Michigan venture likely to impact care, costs
- Henry Ford Health joins Pistons owner, MSU on $2.5B Detroit development
With a massive $2.5 billion overhaul of its Detroit campus underway — one that will transform the surrounding New Center neighborhood, Henry Ford Health now employs over 50,000 people across 550 sites in Michigan, including 17,000 employees from Ascension’s Genesys hospital and southeast Michigan health-care facilities.
The Henry Ford network now has 13 acute-care hospitals plus three behavioral health facilities, physicians offices, urgent care, surgery and emergency centers. It also includes specialty sites and Henry Ford OptimEyes locations.
“The physicians that work at a legacy Ascension hospital will continue to work at those hospitals,” said Carol Schmidt, senior vice president of Ascension, who became senior integration adviser for Henry Ford Health. “They don’t need to reapply, they don’t need to do anything different. Yesterday is no different than today as it relates to their ability to practice.”
Ascension hospitals are part of the larger St. Louis-based Ascension, a nonprofit, Catholic system that covers 18 states and the District of Columbia.
“The Ascension hospitals have been Catholic throughout the course of their existence and will remain Catholic,” Schmidt said. “The same rules, ethical and religious directives that Ascension has followed through the course of many, many years, that govern Catholic health-care systems, will remain in place for the Catholic components in the new Henry Ford.”
When asked whether services such as abortion and gender-affirming care would be available at hospitals joining the Henry Ford system, Schmidt said care at the formerly Ascension hospitals will continue to adhere to “religious and ethical directives” of the Catholic church. Henry Ford’s Riney noted that the health system’s website will identify which sites “honor the religious directives that are part of the Catholic church and what don’t.”
“It’s no different than it would have been historically,” Schmidt said. “So if someone requested services that a legacy Ascension did not provide, we would make sure that that patient’s wishes were granted and help them to make a transfer or do whatever is in their best interests.”
The joint venture is the latest of hospital mergers and consolidations in recent years, including the 2022 marriage of Southfield-based Beaumont Health and Grand Rapids-based Spectrum Health. Those systems now make up the behemoth Corewell Health.
Against these consolidations and health care’s continued financial strains post-COVID, Ascension has struggled. It recorded a $1.1 billion net loss in fiscal 2024. Ransomware cyberattacks earlier this year only made problems worse, hobbling the system for months and in some cases, rerouting patients to other hospitals.
“This partnership allowed us to ensure our values were upheld and our position as community and statewide healthcare leaders was maintained,” Schmidt said. “It was apparent to us that Henry Ford (Health) was the perfect partner.”
Henry Ford Health lost $234 million in 2022, after recording a net profit of $41 million in 2021.
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