Partnership building 10 doctor-owned hospitals

Houston-based University General Hospital Systems has committed to a $1 billion agreement with Alliance Development Group of Charlotte, NC, under which the two will build 10 physician-owned acute care hospitals. Alliance is a construction management company which specializes in delivering turnkey facilities, with seemingly no high-profile healthcare experience to date. University, for its part, already operates a 72-bed hospital near Texas Medical Center in Houston. The next round of hospitals will average about 80 beds, and physicians will own about a 65 percent interest in each hospital. Under the terms of the deal, University will begin building in Houston, and begin building another facility every three months. Targeted markets include Dallas, Denver and Phoenix, with others yet to be announced. No word yet on how the deals are being financed--clearly, physician money has something to do with it, but it would be interesting to find out who is kicking in what. All in all, a rather hush-hush arrangement for a deal with a $1 billion price tag on it.

For more information on the planned hospitals:
- read this Modern Healthcare piece
- check out this Houston Business Journal  article