St. Louis-based Ascension Health is in talks to sell the two-hospital system Carondelet Health of Kansas City, Mo., to HCA Midwest Health System also in Kansas City.
If the deal is completed, Carondelet's 310-bed St. Joseph Medical Center of Kansas City and 146-bed St. Mary's Medical Center of Blue Springs, Mo., would become part of HCA Midwest, a subsidiary of the publicly traded, Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA hospital company. HCA Midwest includes nine hospitals, a psychiatric facility and a network of outpatient centers and clinics in the Kansas City metropolitan area.
According to a press release, HCA Midwest is committed to working with the Catholic diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo., to "preserve the hospitals' Catholic heritage."
Carondelet runs three Kansas City-area long-term care facilities with Benedictine Health System of Duluth, Minn. Those facilities would remain part of Ascension Health, as would St. Joseph's and St. Mary's foundations.
In a press release, Carondelet's President and Chief Executive Fleury Yelvington said that it would benefit Carondelet to be part of a system with a large local presence, particularly in light of changes related to health care reform. She did not elaborate.
HCA Midwest bills itself as Kansas City's largest health care network and private-sector employer. Ascension Health is based in St. Louis but it has no other hospitals in Missouri.
Ascension Health President and Chief Executive Robert Henkel said in the release that the potential sale of Carondelet to HCA Midwest furthers Ascension Health's focus on serving where it is needed and in the way it is needed, in this case by focusing on a growing need for senior services.
As Catholic Health World went to press, financial details and the target timing for the deal were not available.
Copyright © 2012 by the Catholic Health Association of the United States
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