Penn Medicine and Grand View Health form clinical alliance

The University of Pennsylvania Health System has added Bucks County's Grand View Health to its collection of clinical alliances with community health-care providers in the Philadelphia region, the two nonprofits said Tuesday.

Under the arrangement, Grand View, which is anchored by a 200-bed hospital in Sellersville, and Penn will collaborate in clinical areas such as surgery, orthopedics, and trauma, as well as the development of additional sites for outpatient care, but Grand View will remain independent.

Penn has had a similar arrangement with Virtua since 2015, focused on neurosciences and cancer, and announced alliances with Mercy Health System of Southeastern Pennsylvania, and St. Mary Medical Center in April. The partnerships aim to boost clinical care in suburbs, but have the added benefit for Penn of sending more of the region's most complex cases to its flagship facilities in University City.

In April, Penn declined to provide specifics on the increase in the number of patients transferred from Virtua to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania or related facilities for higher-level care after that alliance was formed, saying only that the number of transfers had nearly doubled.