Just seven months after announcing the closing of Florence Hospital at Anthem, a new operator has announced its plans to reopen it early this year. Dallas-based Steward Health Care, which also runs Mountain Vista Medical Center in Mesa, Tempe St. Luke’s Hospital, St. Luke’s Medical Center and St. Luke’s Behavioral Health Center in the Valley, have named it Florence Hospital, A Campus of Mountain Vista Medical Center.
“We plan to provide specialty services such as pulmonary, nephrology and urology, as well as cardiology services,” says Gary Smith, MD, CMO of Steward in Arizona. A team of hospitalists — dedicated physicians who work exclusively for the hospital — will tend to the patients full time.
Florence Hospital will also have a 24-hour emergency room. However, patients with more complex needs will receive care at Mesa-based Mountain Vista Medical Center, Steward officials say.
Florence Hospital opened in 2012, then abruptly closed its doors last June after years of financial problems. In 2013 it filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy, then in 2015 merged with Gilbert Hospital, which had also filed for bankruptcy. Hoping to form a stronger company together, the combined hospitals didn’t do much better, and a final bankruptcy was filed last April.
