Irving, Texas-based CHRISTUS Health is in talks to acquire Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center, a 98-bed New Mexico hospital. The organizations have signed a nonbinding letter of intent and are in exclusive negotiations on the acquisition. CHRISTUS and Gerald Champion Regional are aiming to reach a final agreement this summer.
CHRISTUS is a nonprofit ministry system with 43 hospitals in Texas, Louisiana and New Mexico and 17 in Chile, Colombia and Mexico. It has more than 45,000 staff and more than 15,000 physicians. Gerald Champion Regional is in rural Alamogordo in South Central New Mexico. It is an independent, nonprofit community hospital with a Level III trauma center, 33 medical-surgical specialties and a network of primary and specialty clinics. It has a staff of about 1,000 and contracts with about 160 providers.
CHRISTUS St. Vincent Regional Medical Center is in Santa Fe, New Mexico, which is more than 200 miles north of Alamogordo.
According to a press release on the negotiations, CHRISTUS and Gerald Champion Regional are focused in their talks on elevating the Alamogordo hospital's mission to serve the community, leveraging the strength of CHRISTUS' network, investing in capital improvements, expanding recruitment and retention efforts and bolstering clinical capabilities.
Norm Arnold, Gerald Champion Regional board chair, said in the release that amid health care industry changes, "rural community hospitals like ours (are) facing the strongest headwinds." The hospital's Chief Executive Jim Heckert said the best way to honor the hospital's 74-year legacy is "to ensure we have the resources and financial support to care for our community well into the future."
Specifics on the deal were unavailable as Catholic Health World went to press.