Trinity Mother Frances Hospitals and Clinics of Tyler, Texas, plans to join CHRISTUS Health of Irving, Texas, in a deal that could close by late spring or early summer, according to information from the systems.
The two Catholic, not-for-profit systems have signed a letter of intent to combine. CHRISTUS Health has more than 40 hospitals as well as other facilities in seven U.S. states, Chile and six states in Mexico. Trinity Mother Frances has three hospitals as well as a heart hospital, rehabilitation hospital, a long-term acute care facility and a multispecialty medical group in East Texas. The CHRISTUS and Trinity Mother Frances service areas are adjacent — they do not overlap.
Combining the organizations will provide for "significant growth opportunities," Ernie Sadau, CHRISTUS chief executive, said in a news release. Plans call for the organizations to expand services — particularly primary care services — throughout East Texas.
When the deal is finalized, four Trinity Mother Frances representatives are expected to join the CHRISTUS board, expanding it from 17 to 21 directors. The Trinity Mother Frances executives joining the CHRISTUS board are President and Chief Executive Lindsey Bradley, Chief Operating Officer Ray Thompson and a yet-to-be-named representative from the Trinity Clinic medical group. The fourth member will be a yet-to-be-named sister from Trinity Mother Frances' sponsoring congregation. That order, the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth, will become CHRISTUS' third sponsoring congregation, joining the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word of Houston and the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word of San Antonio.
According to information from the systems, upon the deal's close, CHRISTUS will fund a foundation in the Tyler community "that will support community health." At this time, the partners are not disclosing how much funding CHRISTUS plans to provide.