DALLAS, July 21, 2015 — Children’s Health℠, the leading pediatric health care system in North Texas, today announced it has signed a binding term sheet to acquire Our Children’s House (OCH) at Baylor, which provides highly specialized rehabilitative and transitional care for children with special needs. Earlier this month, Baylor Scott & White Health (Baylor) announced its intent to close the OCH inpatient facility and transition care to outpatient clinics. With the new agreement in place, Children’s Health will assume operation of the OCH inpatient facility, which includes a day surgery program, outpatient therapy clinic and physician clinic, and eight OCH outpatient clinics, and will retain its employees. The transaction is expected to close on or around Sept. 15, 2015.
“We are pleased and proud that we could step forward to ensure that Our Children’s House continues to play a critical role in the pediatric health care community, serving patients and their families with the most challenging and complex needs,” said Christopher J. Durovich, president and chief executive officer of Children’s Health. “Our ability to assure continuity of care for this highly vulnerable population will benefit the children of North Texas now and over the long term.”
Founded in 1993, the OCH program provides coordinated, comprehensive services to children with special health care needs. OCH includes a licensed pediatric hospital for children from infancy through age 18 with developmental or birth disorders, traumatic injury or severe illness. OCH also includes outpatient clinics that offer care coordination, developmental screenings and assessments, parent education and support, and physical, occupational and speech/language therapy.
As part of the agreement, Children’s Health will lease the main inpatient facility on the Baylor campus in downtown Dallas, and will assume leases for eight outpatient clinics located in Allen, Frisco, Grapevine, Irving, Las Colinas, Plano, Rockwall and Waxahachie. The entire highly skilled staff, with training special to the particular needs of these children, will join the Children’s Health team when the transaction closes to ensure that the high-quality, critical care can continue seamlessly.
“Our Children’s House has provided unparalleled care for children with very special needs for more than 20 years, and we are pleased to be able to continue this mission, and to welcome these employees to the Children’s Health team,” added Durovich. “Just as the continuity of care is critical for the patients and their families, we firmly believe that continuity of service by these valued team members is imperative for this to be a successful transition.“
Children’s Health will also continue to provide several programs central to the OCH mission, including the Daycare program located in Irving; the Inpatient, Day and Outpatient Feeding Programs; the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PMR) clinic; the Pulmonary clinic and the Pediatric Headache Clinic. The Children’s Medical Center Foundation will seek philanthropic support for these vital services.