Macon’s Navicent Health to manage Monroe County Hospital in Forsyth

Macon-based Navicent Health is planning to take over the management of Monroe County Hospital in Forsyth.

The Hospital Authority of Monroe County and Navicent Health have agreed to a “management relationship,” according to a news release Tuesday from Navicent. The agreement is subject to the attorney general’s approval and the hospitals finalizing and signing a joint venture related to outpatient imaging in Forsyth.

Navicent’s role with Monroe County Hospital will officially begin June 1, “but interaction between the two organizations is already underway,” the release said.

This not the first relationship the Macon hospital has created with other Middle Georgia hospitals.

In 2013, Houston Healthcare and what is now Medical Center, Navicent Health, announced plans to “create a strategic alignment” that allowed both organizations to remain independent. They would collaborate “in a formal affiliation,” according to a Telegraph story.

In July 2014, Putnam General Hospital in Eatonton and what is now Navicent Health and Medical Center, Navicent Health, announced plan to enter “a strategic partnership” to allow the hospitals to create and expand health care services in Putnam and surrounding counties.

However, a management agreement announced in fall 2014 between Navicent Health and Oconee Regional Health System in Milledgeville was terminated by Navicent in September 2015.

This story was originally published May 17, 2016 at 7:00 PM with the headline "Macon’s Navicent Health to manage Monroe County Hospital in Forsyth."