HealthSouth Corporation announces its joint venture with Memorial Hospital at Gulfport to own and operate an existing 33-bed rehabilitation unit.

The inpatient hospital—now named HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital of Gulfport—will remain at its current location at Memorial Hospital at Gulfport, in Gulfport, Miss, and there will be no interruption of care provided to patients.

“This joint venture combines the strengths of a high-quality local provider with the operating platforms and clinical resources of our national network of more than 120 rehabilitation hospitals to further advance the already strong rehabilitative care Memorial provides,” says Linda Wilder, president of HealthSouth’s southeast region, in a media release.

“We look forward to working together with Memorial Hospital at Gulfport to provide inpatient rehabilitative treatment with state-of-the-art technology and clinical programs through HealthSouth’s first location in Mississippi,” she adds.

“Given the Medicare programs increasing emphasis on the standardization of rehabilitation services, we determined that a national partner will be in the best position to monitor ongoing regulatory actions, promote referral relationships throughout the region and attain the growth necessary for rehabilitation services to be viable over the long-term,” states Gary G. Marchand, Memorial president and CEO, per the release.

The joint venture is expected to begin in the second quarter of 2017, and is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals.

[Source(s): HealthSouth Corporation, PR Newswire]