SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Columbia Pacific Management – one of the largest healthcare providers in Asia, with 26 hospitals in India and Southeast Asia and three senior care facilities in China – announced today it is bringing its international expertise to the China hospital market.
The Seattle-based firm’s new China hospital arm, Columbia China, will start construction next year on two 250-bed multi-specialty hospitals, in Wuxi and Changzhou, and is actively pursuing other hospital opportunities through acquisitions and greenfield projects.
Columbia Pacific has been operating in Asia for 20 years and will be one of the first foreign companies to build hospitals in China. The company is planning a significant expansion in China, similar to the network of hospitals the company owns in India and Southeast Asia through another affiliate, Columbia Asia.
To further bolster its presence in China as the hospitals are built, Columbia Pacific will also open several multi-specialty and specialty outpatient clinics under the Columbia China name. The first clinic, the Columbia China United Plaza Clinic, will open this month in Shanghai’s central Puxi District. The 10,000-square-foot multi-specialty clinic will provide internal medicine, pediatrics, rehabilitation and traditional Chinese medicine.
Columbia Pacific is focusing on large cities in China (Shanghai is 24 million people; Wuxi is 7.5 million; and Changzhou is 3.5 million), with hospitals and clinics designed to serve the wide-ranging medical needs of the country’s fast-growing middle class.
Columbia Pacific has strong ties to China. In 2011 the firm’s China senior care affiliate, Cascade Healthcare, became the first foreign-owned company to receive permission from the Chinese government to build senior care facilities in China and now has facilities in Beijing and Shanghai. Earlier this year, Cascade Healthcare opened its third senior care facility, a 78-bed community in the Pudong District of Shanghai.
“Columbia Pacific has the rare distinction of delivering healthcare services in markets serving more than half of the world’s population, with our investments in both hospitals and senior care across Asia,” said Nate McLemore, the Managing Director of Columbia Pacific Management. “We look forward to increasing our level of investment in China and elsewhere in Asia.”
The 250-bed hospitals in Wuxi and Changzhou are greenfield projects advancing through the permitting process, and both are expected to open by early 2018.
To foster the advent of the new Columbia China hospitals and clinics, Columbia Pacific recently hired Bee Lan Tan to serve as CEO of all of the firm’s healthcare operations in China. Tan previously oversaw hospital operations and development in China for Parkway Pantai, part of the IHH Healthcare Berhad Group, one of Asia’s largest hospital companies.
For its entry into the China hospital market, Columbia Pacific is using expertise gathered over decades in the U.S. healthcare industry, as well as 20 years in Asia healthcare. Columbia Pacific’s Chairman, Daniel R. Baty, is a pioneer in the senior living industry in the U.S. and Europe. He is one of the founders of Emeritus Corp., which merged this year with Brookdale Senior Living for $2.8 billion; and a co-founder and former Chairman of Holiday Retirement, one of the largest independent senior living companies in the world.
The first Columbia Asia hospital opened in Malaysia in 1994 and the network has since grown to 26 hospitals in India and Southeast Asia. The hospitals are designed to serve Asia’s rapidly growing middle class with modern and efficient multi-specialty hospitals located close to where patients live and work.
The new Columbia China hospitals will be operated under a similar model, with a patient-friendly focus.
“With decades of experience as a worldwide health care leader and our affiliation with one of the world’s largest senior housing companies, Columbia Pacific has had sustained success as an innovative health care provider in China, India, Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia,” said Daniel Baty, Chairman of Columbia Pacific Management. “Entering the hospital market in China allows us to offer the same exacting standards of care to a growing country in need of more healthcare choices.”
For more information about the new Columbia China hospital network, go to the company’s new website, Columbia-China.com.
To learn more about Columbia Pacific Management’s healthcare operations in Asia, go to ColPacManagement.com.
About Columbia Pacific Management
Columbia Pacific Management (CPM) oversees an international healthcare business that develops and operates hospitals, clinics and senior housing in Asia. With locations in China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam, CPM’s operating companies provide healthcare and senior care services in markets making up more than half the world’s population. All of these countries have rapidly aging populations, rising middle- and upper-middle-class populations, an under-supply of quality healthcare and senior care facilities, and increasing rates of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, cancer and cardiac diseases – creating an unprecedented demand for world-class healthcare services and senior housing.
The company’s affiliates include Columbia China, which is building a network of hospitals and clinics in China; Columbia Asia, operating hospitals in India and Southeast Asia; Cascade Healthcare, which operates senior care facilities in China; and Remote Medical International, which provides medical services to remote locations around the globe.