Buffalo, N.Y.-based Catholic Health received the first required approval to acquire a 40 percent stake in Orchard Park, N.Y.-based Sterling Surgical Center, according to Buffalo Business First.
The health system hopes to purchase Sterling Surgical Center, which specializes in ophthalmology and gastroenterology. The center submitted a certificate of need application in August.
Catholic Health plans to spend $2.2 million for the stake in the ASC. The health system already serves Orchard Park with Mercy Ambulatory Care Center and expands services in the region's southern communities with other outpatient and ambulatory centers in West Seneca, East Aurora and Lackawanna.
"As we look at ways to better serve our community, ambulatory surgery was an area that offered great potential," said Catholic Health President and CEO Joe McDonald. "Rather than duplicate existing services, partnering with a high quality ambulatory surgery center like Sterling Surgical is the best way to strengthen services for the patients and communities we serve."
Many of the surgery center's physicians already serve the same community as Catholic Health, and the ASC's Medical Director Albert Diaz-Ordaz described the partnership as a "natural alliance."