Northside Hospital Seeks Merger With Gwinnett Health System

SANDY SPRINGS, GA -- Sandy Springs-based Northside Hospital on Thursday announced that it has reached an agreement with Gwinnett Health System to merge its operations.

The merger agreement has been submitted to the Georgia Attorney General's Office for review and depending on the time frame of that process, both operations could be combined as early as 2018, Northside Hospital said.

Gwinnett Health System is the parent company of Gwinnett Medical Center. Northside and Gwinnett previously announced that they had signed a letter of intent to begin discussions to combine their operations (SIGN UP: Get Patch's Daily Newsletter and Real Time News Alerts. Or, if you have an iPhone, download the free Patch app).

"Both systems have taken the necessary time to conduct this process carefully and deliberately," Northside Hospital said in a press release. "The primary due diligence and planning process has concluded and the systems are moving forward with the proposed merger. Northside Hospital and Gwinnett Health System are both driven by quality patient care and satisfaction, strong medical professionals, health care innovation and unparalleled patient access."

Anchored by Northside Hospital in Sandy Springs and Gwinnett Medical Center in Lawrenceville, the new health system also will include hospitals in Canton, Cumming and Duluth, as well as cancer treatment centers, imaging centers, urgent care centers and other outpatient locations throughout the state.

Like Sandy Springs Patch on Facebook!

Altogether, the combined system will have 1,479 beds, nearly 21,000 employees and 3,500 physicians on staff.

Photo 1: Northside Hospital in Sandy Springs. Credit: Northside Hospital