UVA Health on Tuesday announced a partnership with Riverside Health System, the latest move in the academic health system’s efforts to form a statewide network.
Charlottesville, Virginia-based UVA Health will acquire a 5% ownership stake in Newport News, Virginia-based Riverside, which operates four acute-care hospitals and a behavioral health hospital, as well as a physical rehabilitation hospital and a critical illness recovery hospital in partnership with Select Medical.
The affiliation will broaden UVA Health’s complex care referral network to eastern Virginia, while Riverside will receive financial and clinical resources from UVA Health and gain access to the latest clinical trials. The organizations did not provide specifics about the resources.
“Partnerships like our new alliance with Riverside Health System make it easier for Virginians with complex health conditions to receive the care they need close to home,” UVA Health CEO Dr. Craig Kent said in a news release.
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The partnership builds on an existing relationship between the two health systems that started in 2005 with the launch of a stereotactic radiosurgery center in Newport News. Under the agreement, UVA Health and Riverside will retain their existing governance and administrative structures.
UVA Health, a roughly $4 billion health system with four acute-care hospitals, has been expanding its acute-care network beyond its central Virginia headquarters since 2021, when it acquired Novant Health’s ownership stake in a three-hospital joint venture predominantly covering northeast Virginia. The academic health system has since grown its clinical affiliations with Lynchburg, Virginia-based Centra Health and Roanoke, Virginia-based Carilion Clinic, which both refer complex care to UVA Health’s specialists.
Kent said in an interview in April that UVA Health will continue to expand across the state via mergers, acquisitions or affiliations as the health system looks to treat more patients.
