CRANBERRY TWP — Butler Health System and Highmark are in very preliminary discussions about establishing a medical facility together in the township.

The new facility could be built on property Highmark recently bought in the Cranberry Woods Business Park.

But Kevin Stansbury, BHS vice president of Business Development and Corporate Image, said Friday discussions have just begun and at this time no real details have been determined.

Aaron Billger, spokesman for Highmark, said the company has no real comment on the Cranberry Woods matter.

“There is no announcement to be made,” he said.

Billger did say that Highmark is working on a strategy to better serve its members.

“That means keeping care local, keeping it convenient and keeping it at the right cost,” he said.

One part of Highmark’s plan is the possible development of what the company is calling medical malls, similar to the Benbrook Medical Center in Butler Township.

That center features the Butler Ambulatory Surgery Center, the Butler Regional Cancer Center, Balouris Eye Center and Drs. Richard Latuska and Donald Walters, specializing in gastrointestinal diseases and hepatology.

BHS has a stake in the Benbrook facility, as it has in other off-campus, outpatient facilities throughout Butler County and now reaching into Armstrong County with a new urgent care center.

Stansbury said that facility, the new FastERcare center, will open soon in the Franklin Village Shopping Center.

BHS has two other FastERcare facilities, one in the Butler Commons Shopping Center and one in Saxonburg.

“As an independent health system, we are willing to look at all proposals that could help us deliver better care to our patients, and that means working with other providers sometimes, such as the Ellwood City Hospital agreement that we established last year,” Stansbury said.

The Ellwood City Hospital and BHS are working together under a management agreement to develop new services at the Ellwood City site, but at the same time, reduce redundant services the two organizations may be offering through outpatient clinics.

Jerry Andree, Cranberry Township manager, said Friday the township has been working with Highmark for the past six months to a year, discussing the possibility of a new medical facility in Cranberry Woods.

“We feel this will be an excellent addition to the park and community, but I want to stress we have not received any formal proposal at this time. Right now it’s a suggestion of a concept, but one we think will fit well in the township,” Andree said.

Principo Advisors, a Highmark subsidiary, bought an almost 25-acre site, Lot 300 in the Cranberry Woods Plan, for $8.9 million from Mine Safety Appliances, which originally owned all of the 300-acre Cranberry Woods Business Park.

Andree said this property comes with a convenant that states that the land can only be used for medical ventures, such as health care, surgery, pharmaceutical, vision, child health care, health insurance and support services.

“What goes around, comes around,” Andree said, adding that for many years Cranberry Township was the focus of what locals called the hospital wars.

“When I started here, Passavant, St. Francis and Butler Health owned a large chunk of land,” he said.

In the 1990s, the three organizations were in a fight for a certificate of need, that the state requires before a hospital can be built.

“St. Francis got the certificate of need and Butler (Health Systems) sold their land, but now we’re back to being the center of health care again,” Andree said.

“But our medical offices and facilities in the township seem to be bursting at the seams when you walk in, so there is a need for more facilities,” he said.