Butler Memorial Hospital staffer Tara Erskine is ready for change.

Erskine, 30, of Kittanning has worked as a CT scan technologist at the Butler hospital for eight years. A member of the hospital’s technologists union, Erskine is optimistic about Butler Memorial being partnered with West Virginia University Health System.

Officials announced Wednesday that Independence Health Systems’ five hospitals — Greensburg, Latrobe, Mt. Pleasant, Clarion and Butler — will join the Morgantown-based system.

The merger agreement includes an $800 million commitment from the WVU system over the next five years to strengthen the Independence hospitals and affiliated physician groups.

It is unclear what the merger will entail.

Independence Health spokesperson Kelley Skoloda said all employees in good standing will be maintained for at least one year.

“WVU Medicine usually consolidates several back-office functions — HR, legal, compliance, IT and parts of finance — and many of these roles remain hospital-based,” Skoloda said via email. “Most support services stay entirely at the local level, and there is a record of job growth with previous acquisitions. This balanced approach preserves jobs, keeps resources close to patients and strengthens efficiency across the system.”

Skoloda declined to provide further comment.

West Virginia University Health System spokeswoman Angela Jones declined to comment, deferring to Skoloda’s statement.

Erskine and her colleagues at Butler Memorial have not received much word about what the merger will entail.

“All I know is what we’ve been working with — and that it’s not working,” she said. “We’re hoping that this is a good change.”

‘False promises’

This is the second time in recent history that Butler Memorial will change health systems.

Butler Health System — consisting of Butler Memorial and Clarion hospitals — merged in 2023 with Excela Health’s Frick Hospital in Mt. Pleasant, Latrobe Hospital in Latrobe and Westmoreland Hospital in Greensburg.

The health care conglomerate became known as the Independence Health System.

“Whenever we formed Independence,” Erskine said, “they promised us a lot of changes and improvements. And since we merged with them and formed Independence Health System, it just kind of feels like those were a bunch of false promises.”

Independence has had its fair share of ups and downs.

Prior to the merger, Butler and Excela saw nearly $83 million in combined losses in 2022. One year later, losses decreased but still fell well into eight figures — about $74 million.

Losses dropped to just shy of $41.5 million in 2024 — about a 50% reduction.

Related:

• Independence Health announces merger with WVU Health System

Tom Albanesi, Independence’s chief financial officer, told TribLive this month that losses are expected to again be cut in half by the end of this year. Four of Independence’s five hospitals have seen increases in excess revenue from June 2024 to last June.

Independence cut 226 positions in 2023 — the same year it lost almost $23 million across a three month span. It reported layoffs of 151 employees in April.

About 240 technologists and licensed nurse practitioners, including Erskine, unionized in May under the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals, or PASNAP.

One of the motivators for creating the union, Erskine said, was the change in staff benefits that came with the formation of Independence Health. This led to a reduction in staff at Butler Memorial which, in Erskine’s assessment, was uncommon for the hospital.

“We were used to having really good benefits for our staff,” she said, “and once that was stripped from us, a lot of the older staff had no reason to stay, because they could find the same thing somewhere else.”

Union pushes for continued contract under WVU

Erskine is not alone in her cautious optimism.

Emma Henry, a materials management worker at Frick Hospital, spoke positively about the merger on behalf of the 280 hospital staffers represented by SEIU, Service Employees International Union — Healthcare Pennsylvania.

“We are optimistic and hopeful that joining WVU Health System will lead to greater investment in and expansion of services for our patients,” Henry said via email.

Henry emphasized the importance of WVU Health honoring the union’s contract.

“We stand ready to work collaboratively with WVU leadership for the future success of our hospital,” she said. “Together, we can preserve and enhance quality services and good union jobs for our community moving forward.”

‘Keep care here in our community’

If anyone can forecast Independence’s future under WVU Health System, it’s Paul Means Jr.

Means, 56, of Bullskin is the director of primary and ambulatory care at Uniontown Hospital, which was absorbed by WVU Health in 2020. The Fayette County hospital in 2019 lost several of its services when UPMC pulled out of a physician partnership.

“(Uniontown Hospital) was not in a good situation at the time when WVU Medicine came in,” Means said.

Since coming under WVU Health’s wing, Uniontown Hospital has expanded its workforce and services.

Staff has grown by nearly 30% since 2022, Jones said — from nearly 900 to more than 1,100 employees.

The hospital is now home to cancer treatment, birthing, stroke and orthopedic and spine centers, Jones said. It has expanded its cardiology services, brought in a neurosurgeon and launched a home health and hospice sector.

A Connellsville native, Means was an independent physician in the region for about 20 years before being hired by WVU Health System. He said having a wider variety of local health care services is crucial for the rural community’s aging residents, who have limited transportation capacities.

“I chose WVU … because I wanted somebody that was going to keep the care here in our community, and they did that,” Means said. “They held true to every promise they made us here, and I think they’ll do the same for Independence.”

Independence employees ‘trying to piece everything together’

Tammy May, an ICU nurse at Butler Memorial, remains uncertain about how the two health systems will be joined.

“The bulk of us are still just trying to piece everything together,” said May, local union president of PASNAP at Butler Memorial. “We’re still trying to figure out if it’s an acquisition or a merger.”

If the two systems are merging, she said, the three-year contract her union settled with Independence Health in May should be honored. But, if it’s an acquisition, the roughly 500-member bargaining unit likely would have to renegotiate.

She said the union hasn’t been able to get clarification on that point from management.

May said she hopes the joining with WVU Health System will be smoother for her union members than the one between Butler Health and Excela Health that created Independence.

Having to work with management separated by county lines, she said, created a human resources communication problem for union members.

When some members submitted a leave request, it might take months before they would learn if the leave was granted, she said.

As a result, she said the new union contract contains language requiring that members receive an answer to a leave request within a specified number of working days.

“We’re hoping that the WVU entity will be a much better collaborator,” she said.

Staff writer Jeff Himler contributed to this story.

---

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)

---