Irvine-based real estate investor Griffin-American Healthcare REIT had a busy first quarter, with $353.7 million worth of acquisitions encompassing 18 healthcare properties in 11 states.
The properties were grouped into two portfolios and included a surgical hospital, three senior housing facilities, and 14 medical office buildings.
The Independence Medical Office Building portfolio contained five buildings and 461,000 square feet of space. The buildings are in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Kentucky.
Orange Star Medical portfolio was made up of four medical office buildings and a surgical hospital in the suburbs of Dallas and Houston and in Durango, Colo.
The firm said the purchase prices of the two deals take its Griffin-American Healthcare REIT III portfolio of healthcare real estate to a value of more than $631 million. The portfolio now includes 42 medical office buildings, hospitals and senior housing facilities overall.
Griffin-American bought the properties from various sellers.
The REIT is sponsored by Irvine-based American Healthcare Investors LLC and Los Angeles-based Griffin Capital Corp. Mussallem in D.C.
Irvine-based heart valve maker Edwards Lifesciences Corp. Chief Executive Michael Mussallem went to Washington, D.C. late last month to testify on device innovation at a hearing sponsored by the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
The veteran chief executive, who’s been the only boss Edwards has known in the 15 years since it spun off from Chicago-based Baxter International Inc., was an invited expert panelist on behalf of Washington-based industry group AdvaMed.
“…It’s our passion and mission to continue developing better solutions to improve the life of patients,” Mussallem told the committee.
Mussallem’s comments focused on the Food and Drug Administration’s vision to improve regulatory processes; the need he sees to strengthen research and development infrastructures; and continued encouragement of innovation among device makers.
Innovation Institute Taps Exec
La Palma-based Innovation Institute hired Michelle Van Gheem as executive director for enterprise development for member-owner Bon Secours Health System.
Bon Secours is a $3.6 billion not-for-profit Catholic hospital operator based in Marriottsville, Md., and sponsored by Bon Secours Ministries.
The institute was founded with an investment from Irvine-based St. Joseph Health. It’s intended to develop products and services and is made up of a medical technology incubator, an investment fund and a shared services group.
Bon Secours joined St. Joseph as a member-owner a short while later, and Children’s Hospital of Orange County in Orange signed on last month.
The institute said in a news release that Van Gheem would be primarily responsible for day-to-day operations centered on the cultivation and development of medical product ideas submitted to the incubator by the doctors and employees of Bon Secours.
Bon Secours Chief Executive Richard Statuto ran St. Joseph Health when it was known as St. Joseph Health System and based in Orange.
Van Gheem will work out of Bon Secours’ Richmond Health System offices in Glen Allen, Va., and Marriottsville. She was most recently director of research compliance at the State University of New York at Buffalo.
Nihon Kohden Signs Deal
Irvine-based Nihon Kohden America received a group purchasing contract from Charlotte, N.C.-based Premier Inc.
Nihon Kohden America will sell its physiological monitoring devices to Premier’s 3,400 hospital members and 110,000 provider members under the deal, which took effect March 1.
“We have a long history of bringing different thinking for better healthcare, and our physiological monitoring equipment exemplifies our commitment to continually improving and enhancing the way care is delivered in this country,” said Wilson Constantine, Nihon Kohden’s chief operating officer, in a statement.
Nihon Kohden America is the U.S. arm of Japan’s Nihon Kohden Corp. Its devices include pulse oximeters, arrhythmia-analyzing monitors, and wireless patient monitors.
Bits & Pieces
Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach introduced a program for treating bone and soft tissue sarcomas, a form of cancer. It said the program is operated in alliance with Keck Medicine of USC. … NextGen Healthcare Information Systems LLC, a subsidiary of Irvine-based Quality Systems Inc., is showcasing products and services during the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society’s annual conference and exhibition this week in Chicago. … Mission Viejo-based drug developer Aeolus Pharmaceuticals Inc. said it received a notice of allowance from the Israeli Patent Office for a patent covering its lead compound, AEOL 10150. Aeolus’ patent covers methods for treating injuries associated with “exposure to an alkylating species,” such as sulfur mustard gas.
