CHE Trinity Health of Livonia, Mich., and St. Joseph's Hospital Health Center of Syracuse, N.Y., have signed a letter of intent for the 431-bed stand-alone hospital to join the 82-hospital system.
Under the arrangement, the Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities will transfer sponsorship of the hospital to CHE Trinity's sponsorship organization, Catholic Health Ministries. St. Joseph's will retain its local governance structure.
Kathryn Ruscitto, president and chief executive of St. Joseph's, said that joining the large national system will help St. Joseph's to "meet the potential challenges of health care reform," including by accessing the "intellectual capital" of CHE Trinity. She said this will help St. Joseph's to improve care quality, improve how it addresses population health, build up its infrastructure and achieve the scale needed to reduce costs.
She noted that St. Joseph's top goal in joining CHE Trinity will be to preserve its mission, and so St. Joseph's carefully considered the culture and fit of the system before signing the letter of intent.
CHE Trinity and St. Joseph's now are performing due diligence reviews and the merger would require the approval of New York state regulators. Carol Tingwall, director of communications for CHE Trinity, said the transaction will be complete by the end of this year.
CHE Trinity was formed through the May 2013 merger of Catholic Health East of Newtown Square, Pa., and Trinity Health of Livonia. The merged system operates in 21 states.