Plano-based LHP Hospital Group, Inc. announced a merger agreement yesterday with Nashville-based Ardent Health Services. This merger will create the second largest private, for-profit hospital operation in the US with 19 hospitals in six states and $3 billion in revenues, according to a news release. Currently, Ardent operates three health systems, including 14 hospitals and physicians at about 100 clinic locations in Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico. LHP Hospital Group, Inc. is merging with Nashville-based Ardent Health Services.[/caption] LHP has five acute-care hospitals in Texas, New Jersey, Idaho and Florida, which are joint venture partnerships. The hospitals include Seton Medical Center in Harker Heights, Texas; HUMC Mountainside in Montclair, N.J.; HUMC at Pascack Valley in Westwood, N.J.; Bay Medical Center in Panama City, Fla., and Portneuf Medical Center in Pocatello, Idaho. “LHP’s decisions have always been driven by our commitment to advance our mission of restoring and enhancing the health of our patients,” LHP President and CEO John Holland said in the release. “We recognized we had a unique opportunity to accelerate that mission by joining forces with Ardent and tapping into their exceptional resources, skills, track record and reach.” Ardent will remain headquartered in Nashville and lead the company with help from LHP executives. The merger is not expected to affect day-to-day operations, and Ardent will assume LHP’s management and operational responsibilities with the joint venture partnership hospitals. Terms of the transaction, expected to close in early 2017, were not disclosed.