Grove City Medical Center's merger into Allegheny Health Network is complete.

The two medical organizations announced last August that they were seeking to bring the Grove City hospital under AHN's larger umbrella. At the end of the year, regulatory approvals were finalized, paving the way for the deal to finish.

Friday morning, various AHN officials traveled to Grove City to meet the hospital's over 400 employees, celebrate and distribute some AHN branded merchandise to the crew, according to AHN spokesman Dan Laurent.

The hospital's name is now AHN Grove City, according to Laurent, and signs started going up around the hospital Thursday.

In a news release, AHN declared its goal of upgrading the hospitals information technology system. AHN now owns nine hospitals, and all of them run through the same IT system. These investments, among others, will total about $40 million, according to the news release.

The Grove City hospital is a 67-bed acute care hospital that opened in 1981. AHN employs about 21,000 people.

“Today we celebrate the beginning of an exciting new era of health care excellence in Mercer County as an affiliate of Allegheny Health Network and Highmark Health,” said Timothy R. Bonner, chairman of GCMC's Board of Directors.

The merger comes on the heels of Butler Health System's merger with Clarion Healthcare System finalizing last month.

This is an excerpt of an article that will appear in Sunday's Butler Eagle. To read the full story, make sure to pick up a copy of the paper or subscribe online.