T-L Photos/JANELL HUNTER The parent company of East Ohio Regional Hospital, pictured, and its sister hospital, Ohio Valley Medical Center, has reached a tentative agreement to sell the hospitals to California-based Alecto Healthcare Services.

WHEELING — The top administrator of East Ohio Regional Hospital and Ohio Valley Medical Center sees a planned sale of the facilities to Alecto Healthcare Services as a positive step for health care in the area.

On Friday, Ohio Valley Health Services and Education Corp. — the hospitals’ parent company — and Alecto announced a joint agreement for Alecto’s purchase of EORH in Martins Ferry, OVMC in Wheeling and related entities.

Michael Caruso, president and CEO of OVHS&E, said, “We think it’s very beneficial for our employees, our medical staff and our community to improve the care that we continue to provide in a 10-county area for about 220,000 people that we service in Ohio and West Virginia.”

The agreement calls for significant reinvestment in EORH and OVMC to enhance the delivery of care. No loss of employment is expected as a result of this transaction.

The potential acquisition and partnership with Alecto could involve “capital reinvestment into our community health care systems as well as additional expertise from a national perspective to how we improve health care,” Caruso said.

Capital investments could result in emergency room improvements, updated technology and equipment and group purchasing savings because of increased volume, he said. Alecto expertise could aid with programming development, physician recruitment assistance and knowledge of health care reform.

Caruso said, “Both hospitals will continue to provide acute care and critical care services. All employee benefit plans and contract plans will be assumed by Alecto. Any changes will be a collaborative effort in determining what’s best for our community in moving forward.”

Action to secure regulatory approval for the asset purchase agreement began Friday in both Ohio and West Virginia, he said. Completion of the process is anticipated in the second quarter of this year, at the earliest.

To finalize the purchase, Alecto must secure a certificate of need from the West Virginia Health Care Authority and approval from Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, the Ohio Department of Health and the Ohio Department of Medicaid.

If the sale is approved by state regulators, OVHS&E “will no longer exist, excluding the foundation,” he said. “At this point, we will convert from a nonprofit entity to a for-profit entity.”

The hospitals will still provide charity care even with the change in status.

“The main difference is that we become a taxpaying entity. We will continue to follow the same health care policies that we have in position for charity care,” Caruso said.

Regarding the status of senior administrators, he said, “Alecto believes in continuing local management because hospitals are local entities.”

Currently, EORH and OVMC have a relationship with the James Cancer Center and the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, both in Columbus. Caruso said the centers’ leadership “is very aware and is working with us (and) with our new partners to determine the opportunities within our organization.”

If the purchase is approved, it will be Alecto Healthcare Services’ second operation in the region. Alecto purchased Fairmont General Hospital in September 2014 and renamed the facility Fairmont Regional Medical Center.

Founded in 2012, Alecto also owns St. Rose Hospital in Hayward, Calif., Olympia Medical Center in Los Angeles and Wilson N. Jones Regional Medical Center in Sherman, Texas. Its headquarters is located in Irvine, Calif.

Alecto officials describe it as a “health care system and management services organization whose vision focuses on the ways in which health care should be managed in its current climate of reform.”