St. Mary's Good Samaritan of Centralia, Ill., plans to acquire the 22-bed Clay County Hospital in Flora, Ill., by the end of the year. The organizations have a nonbinding agreement and have not disclosed terms of the proposed acquisition.
Clay County currently owns Clay County Hospital; BJC HealthCare of St. Louis manages it. The agreement calls for St. Mary's Good Samaritan to own and manage the facility and for the facility to become a Catholic hospital, following the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services.
St. Mary's Good Samaritan now includes two hospitals: St. Mary's Hospital in Centralia, and Good Samaritan Regional Health Center in Mount Vernon, Ill. That hospital group is cosponsored by St. Louis' SSM Health Care and Chicago's Felician Services.
According to Phil Gustafson, regional president and system vice president of St. Mary's Good Samaritan, bringing Clay County Hospital into the SSM system will "create the foundation for care coordination as well as begin the process of regional strategic planning.
"With this strong network of hospitals and primary care providers, a care coordination program will be launched to support the network in improving population health (and) quality outcomes and reducing overall costs of care," Gustafson said.