MGH Spends $18 Million for Boston Rehabilitation Hospital

The Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) announced last week its purchase of the Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Boston for $18 million.

The sale will incorporate the 284-bed profit-making hospital, which takes patients in long-term recovery from major illness or surgery, into the MGH as a non-profit subsidiary, effective January 1.

Income from the Spaulding will be used to support that hospital's programs, but not to support the financially troubled MGH, hospital officials said.

The Spaulding has had close ties to the MGH since the rehabilitation hospital was founded 13 years ago. "It's a part of the MGH network," MGH Associate General Director Lawrence E. Martin said yesterday.

"We consider it a very important place for getting patients out of the MGH. Getting people out of the acute arena and into something less acute is very important," Martin added.

Located on MGH property, the Spaulding gets 49 percent of its patients from MGH and two-thirds of its staff hold MGH appointments. The MGH is a Harvard Medical School teaching hospital, but while some students are taught there, the Spaulding is only classified as Harvard-associated, meaning it doesn't have official teaching programs.

Medical School and hospital officials contacted yesterday were unsure if the Spaulding would become an official teaching hospital. Hospital spokesman Jean Yokum said becoming a teaching hospital was a "very long process," and that any discussions about affiliation were very long term.

"That's one of the things we will look at, if it can increase the educational framework, we will want to do it," Martin said.

Earlier this month the MGH trustees rejected a $60 million offer from the Hospital Corporation of America to purchase the McLean Hospital in Belmont, the MGH's sister institution. The deal was promoted by the hospital's trustees as a way of raising badly needed funds for the institution.