Cleveland Clinic Florida purchased 44 acres of land in Port St. Lucie, Fla., for $5.7 million, according to TCPalm.

Palos Heights, Ill.-based Palos Health will join Chicago-based Northwestern Medicine on Jan. 1. 

An investment group completed its purchase of Astria Regional Medical Center in Yakima, Wash., and a neighboring medical office building on Dec. 15, according to the Yakima Herald.

Several large hospitals and health systems announced plans this year to expand overseas.

Concord (N.H.) Hospital was the sole bidder to buy LRGHealthcare, a two-hospital system in Laconia, N.H., out of bankruptcy, according to the Laconia Daily Sun.

There were several hospital mergers that, at some point in their lifetime, were called off in the past year. 

Pittsburgh-based UPMC will acquire a 105-year-old hospital in Kilkenny, Ireland, the third hospital the system owns in the country. 

The Federal Trade Commission is seeking to stop Philadelphia-based Jefferson Health and Einstein Healthcare Network from completing their merger while the agency appeals a federal judge's decision to allow the transaction to move forward. 

Encompass Health is exploring a range of options for its home health and hospice division, including an initial public offering, spinoff, merger or sale, the company said Dec. 9. 

Stanford (Calif.) Medicine and Dignity Health Central Coast have inked an affiliation agreement to improve healthcare in California.

Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare is acquiring up to 45 ambulatory surgery centers from Towson, Md.-based SurgCenter Development, according to a Dec. 10 news release. 

Brentwood, Tenn.-based Quorum Health has managed Montrose (Colo.) Memorial Hospital for more than three decades. That agreement will end in January, according to the Montrose Daily Press. 

Oak Street Health, a Chicago-based network of primary care centers for Medicare patients, will operate in two new states for 2021: Louisiana and South Carolina.

Providence, R.I.-based Care New England appears to have rejected a $250 million bid from StoneBridge Healthcare, according to The Providence Journal.

Mercy Medical Center, a 476-bed hospital in Canton, Ohio, will join the Cleveland Clinic, the organizations said Dec. 8.

A Pennsylvania federal court on Dec. 8 rejected the Federal Trade Commission's challenge to a merger between Philadelphia-based Jefferson Health and Einstein Healthcare Network. 

StoneBridge Healthcare made an unsolicited $250 million offer to buy Providence, R.I.-based Care New England, according to local news station WPRI.

Six transactions involving hospitals and health systems were announced, finalized or advanced since Nov. 11:

Sanford Health has indefinitely suspended discussions about a planned merger with Salt Lake City-based Intermountain Health because of the abrupt exit of Sanford's longtime president and CEO, Kelby Krabbenhoft.

Several potential hospital mergers have been challenged by the Federal Trade Commission or U.S. Justice Department this year.