Lakewood Hospital

The Tennessee firm with an interest in Lakewood Hospital has history of developing small hospitals in partnership with doctors and health systems.

(File photo)

LAKEWOOD, Ohio - Surgical Development Partners, which expressed interest in redeveloping Lakewood Hospital this week, has developed smaller suburban hospitals, medical office buildings and outpatient surgery centers across the country.

But the company often sells its interest in the projects and does not manage them day-to-day.

The city is negotiating with the Cleveland Clinic to close Lakewood Hospital and open a Clinic family health center and emergency department in its place. The city owns the current hospital building, but the Cleveland Clinic operates it under an agreement with the Lakewood Hospital Association.

City officials and the association are wary of working with Surgical Development Partners, since the company offered no specifics and a plan with the Clinic is nearly finalized.

Surgical Development Partners Projects

Surgical Development Partners currently has ownership stakes in only two hospitals: Walnut Hill Medical Center in Dallas and Lakeway Regional Medical Center in Lakeway, Texas.

Generally, the company partners with doctors and a management company, such as a health system, to run a hospital.

"A single stand-alone hospital has difficulty getting deals with carriers," Surgical Development Partners attorney Frank Sossi said.

A spokesman for the city of Lakeway, near Austin, said officials are pleased with the 106-room hospital with an emergency room that Surgical Development Partners helped build in their town.

"The bottom line is, we are thrilled to have a full-service hospital in Lakeway," city spokesman Devin Monk said. "This is a component for a better life in the city. The residents in a survey said their No. 1 concern was getting a new hospital ... We feel they have provided a full-service hospital that can meet the needs of the community."

The company lists other projects on its website, including "Southern California Medical Center" and "Northwest Houston Medical Center." However, Sossi said the company is using general descriptions of the hospitals and not specific names of hospitals, which it has sold.

"The other facilities, we put the deals together and were bought out either by the system or the doctors," Sossi said.

Details about how Surgical Development Partners would proceed with Lakewood Hospital, if the city and Lakewood Hospital Association were interested, need to be worked out, he said.

Ohio projects

Surgical Development Partners has experience developing hospitals and surgical centers in Ohio, Sossi said.

The company partnered with a group of physicians to build a surgical hospital in New Albany, that has since become Mount Carmel New Albany, Sossi said. A footnote on Surgical Development Partners' website said the New Albany hospital was developed by Surgical Alliance LLC while key executives of Surgical Development Partners were associated with that firm.

In addition, Surgical Development Partners helped develop the Park West Surgical Center, which opened in April 2006 in Akron. The Cleveland Clinic bought the surgical center in August 2015.

Surgical Development Partners worked with Summa Health System and local physicians to open a surgical center in Medina in March 2011, Sossi said.

Officials from several of the hospitals affiliated with Surgical Development Partners could not be reached for comment.

G. Edward Alexander is president and CEO of Surgical Development Partners. He previously founded Surgical Alliance Corp., was founder and chief financial officer of OrthoLink Physicians Corp., and was chief financial officer for Team Health.

Alexander's LinkedIn profile says he has a bachelor's degree from Emory University.

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