Penn Medicine is turning its sole nursing home unit, at Penn Rittenhouse, over to a new operator

The University of Pennsylvania Health System plans to turn its sole nursing-home unit over to a new operator next month, the Philadelphia nonprofit confirmed Thursday. The change is pending regulatory approvals.

The 19-bed unit at Penn Rittenhouse, the former Graduate Hospital, operates as the Penn Presbyterian Center for Continuing Care. It moved to that location, in the 1800 block of South Street, in 2020 from Penn Presbyterian Medical Center.

The new operator, Rittenhouse Post Acute, will have the backing of Marquis Health Consulting Services, a fast-growing New Jersey management company that works with 15 nursing homes in the Philadelphia region. Penn said the new operator has plans to expand the Rittenhouse unit to 38 beds next year.

Typically, Marquis manages nursing homes owned by Tryko Partners, a real estate firm based in the same building as Marquis in Brick, N.J., but Rittenhouse Post Acute does not involve Tryko, a spokesperson for the two companies said.

Employees in the skilled-nursing unit will either move to the new operator or take different jobs at Penn, according to Penn.

Good Shepherd Penn Partners operates an inpatient rehabilitation unit on the third and fourth floors of Penn Rittenhouse and a long-term acute care unit on the fifth floor. The operation of those is not changing, according to a spokesperson for Good Shepherd Rehabilitation, an Allentown nonprofit that has partnered with Penn for post-acute care since 2008.

Penn’s decision to move away from its small skilled-nursing unit continues a trend for local health systems. Virtua Health sold its two nursing homes to Tryko in 2022. Jefferson sold a nursing home in Washington Township, N.J., to a different company last year.