Terre Haute, Ind.-based Union Health ended 2025 with a milestone Dec. 13 acquisition, adding Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare’s Terre Haute Regional Hospital to its now three-hospital portfolio.
Ian Macdonald, who became CFO of Union Health October 2025, said during a Becker’s “CFO+Revenue Cycle Podcast” episode that bringing together Union Health, a nonprofit system, with a facility that operated under a for-profit model, was a “huge” learning opportunity.
“Whenever you merge two systems, the ideal way to do it is to draw upon the best of both, and to not impose on either one a certain way of doing things,” he said.
Union Health had approximately 500 employees from Terre Haute Regional join its team through the acquisition. Union Health also obtained a Certificate of Public Advantage through the merger, an agreement to operate in the community’s best interest due to the system’s resulting near-monopoly in the local market.
The merger also came at a time of significant systemwide technology implementation. Union Health currently uses Cerner’s electronic medical record while Terre Haute Regional uses Meditech. However, Union Health will roll out Workday by Jan. 1, 2027, and Epic by Jan. 9, 2027, across its three facilities.
“Coordinating the records and the flow of information between these systems in the environment we’re in is a real challenge,” Mr. Macdonald said. “We’re working through it, and we are all excited about it. It’s a lot of work, but it’s going to be great.”
While Mr. Macdonald declined to discuss the possibility of future acquisitions, he said Epic’s connect site model will be meaningful in expanding Union Health’s regional reach.
“If you define expansion in different sorts of ways, from that angle, I see a huge opportunity.”
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