Milwaukee's Ministry Health Care may sell Ministry Saint Joseph's Hospital of Marshfield, Wis., to the Marshfield Clinic Health System and acquire that system's Diagnostic & Treatment Center in Weston, Wis. Ministry and the Marshfield Clinic Health System have signed a nonbinding memorandum of understanding on the potential deal.
Ministry Saint Joseph's is a 500-plus-bed tertiary care teaching hospital. It is one of 16 Wisconsin hospitals owned by Ministry, which is part of St. Louis-based Ascension. Ministry also has a children's hospital in Marshfield.
Based in Marshfield, Marshfield Clinic Health System is a nonprofit charitable corporation that operates Wisconsin's largest private group medical practice, with more than 700 physicians. The clinic system has more than 50 clinic locations as well as two hospitals and a health plan, all in Wisconsin.
Ministry and the Marshfield Clinic system jointly sponsor one of those two hospitals, Flambeau Hospital in Park Falls, Wis. Ministry and Marshfield Clinic also partner on cardiac services throughout their service areas.
The two also jointly sponsor the Diagnostic & Treatment Center in Weston, the facility that Ministry may acquire. Ministry already owns a hospital in Weston.
As Catholic Health World went to press, the partners were not commenting beyond a press release.