Contact:
Gladys Bernet – 996-1301
Jack Coyle - 348-7878

Tyler Memorial to Join Mercy Health Partners

TUNKHANNOCK, PA (11/10/2009) - Mercy Scranton President Kevin Cook and
Tyler Memorial Hospital CEO Denise S. Gieski today announced that effective
January 1, 2010, Tyler Memorial Hospital will become Mercy Tyler, joining
Mercy Scranton and Mercy Special Care as a part of Mercy Health Partners.
Gieski and Cook announced the transaction today during a formal Signing
Ceremony on the Hospital's front lawn. The announcement and signing comes
after a rigorous due diligence process that started last spring.

“Tyler has done an excellent job of delivering quality community healthcare
to people close to home,” said Cook. “Together we will be able to build
upon mutual strengths, extend medical leadership and our healing ministry
in ways that will benefit everyone who comes to us for care.”

Ms. Gieski noted that during the next two months, hospital officials will
be busy attending to the details of merging the facilities. “With the New
Year, the same health professionals who have been treating Wyoming County
residents for years will still be here,” she said. “Under a new sign –
Mercy Tyler – and with a bright, promising future ahead.”

Tyler chose Mercy after reviewing several proposals from a number of
providers. Facing significant financial challenges, like many small rural
hospitals, the Tyler administration and board felt that as a non-profit
organization, Mercy’s culture, mission and Core Values were the best
possible fit for the Wyoming County community. “Mercy’s commitment to
medical excellence and their mission were very attractive to those of us in
the community who reviewed what they brought to the table,” said Ms.
Gieski.

Mercy Health Partners will assume the obligations, resources and personnel
of Tyler, making the new entity, Mercy Tyler, a member hospital of
Cincinnati-based Catholic Healthcare Partners (CHP), recently recognized as
a Top Ten Health System in Quality and Efficiency by Thomson Reuters.

“Early in the process of meeting members of the Tyler Hospital family, we
felt a real synergy with their staff and their approach to community
healthcare,” said John Starcher, CEO of Mercy Health Partners and
Divisional CEO of Catholic Healthcare Partners. “CHP is excited to have
Tyler be part of CHP and the Mercy Family. We embrace their tradition of
community healthcare and look forward, with them, to extending our
faith-based healing ministry through the daily application of our core
values of compassion, excellence, human dignity, justice, sacredness of
life and service.”

Established in a converted hotel in Meshoppen in 1948, Tyler Memorial
Hospital was the result of a grassroots community effort to create a
hospital in the region.

Tyler has provided a wide range of diagnostic and therapeutic services to
the region, including laparoscopic and general surgery, internal medicine,
an intensive care unit, emergency services, mobile intensive care, physical and occupational therapy, pediatrics, orthopedics, short-stay surgery, kidney dialysis, laboratory, vascular services, an imaging center, cardiac rehabilitation, podiatry, urology, cardiology, rheumatology and a sleep disorder clinic and a Home Health Agency. The hospital holds a pivotal position within Wyoming County, Pennsylvania. The merger is expected to strengthen the facility, ensuring continued high-quality medical care to area residents.

Mercy Health Partners and Mercy Hospital have earned a vital role in the
healthcare of Northeastern Pennsylvania. Mercy’s roots within the community
of Northeastern Pennsylvania are more than 100 years old. Mercy is part of
Catholic Healthcare Partners (CHP), a multi-congregational health system
and one of the largest non-profit healthcare systems in the nation.

Mercy’s medical leadership in Northeastern Pennsylvania is evident in
national accolades for outstanding quality in several clinical areas.
Thomson Reuters has named Mercy Hospital a Top 100 hospital in the nation
for heart care, four years in a row. No other hospital in the region has
earned such a distinction and very few hospitals have accomplished such a
feat nationally. The Mercy Cancer Center has earned the American College of
Surgeon’s Commission on Cancer Outstanding Achievement Award. This
recognizes cancer programs for multi-year, consistent excellence in
providing quality care to cancer patients. A cancer facility receives the
award following an on-site evaluation by a physician surveyor. Only 19
percent of cancer programs surveyed throughout the country received this
prestigious award in 2008.

Mercy Health Partners is comprised of Mercy Hospital, an acute care
hospital in Scranton, PA, Mercy Special Care Hospital in Nanticoke, PA and
three outpatient centers located in Lackawanna and Luzerne counties.

CHP is one of the largest nonprofit health systems in the U.S. With $4.76
billion in assets, CHP employs 36,500 associates in more than 100
organizations in nine regions, including 32 hospitals which serve the
healthcare needs of people in Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and
contiguous states. Mission driven, in 2008 CHP provided more than $335
million, or 8.2 percent of total expenses, in targeted community benefit.
CHP’s commitment to values is reflected in its provision of comprehensive
employee benefits, including health care coverage for all regular
associates, and by paying competitive wages, including a just wage that
exceeds state and federal minimums. CHP associates provide high quality
care throughout their services areas. In 2009, CHP earned accolades as a
Top 10 health system for quality and efficiency in a Thomson Reuters study
of 252 health systems across the country.

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