Mercy system considers acquiring St. John's in Joplin

St. John's Regional Medical Center in Joplin may join Sisters of Mercy Health System if a preliminary agreement revealed today advances.

Denver-based Catholic Health Initiatives signed a letter of intent with St. Louis-based Sisters of Mercy on May 1 for a potential transfer of St. John's ownership.

"This opens the door for the whole process of due diligence," said Miranda Lewis, media coordinator for St. John's Regional Medical Center. "We'll see quite a few people from Sisters of Mercy over the next few weeks and then we'll go from there. We don't expect anything to happen within the next 30 to 60 days, but everyone here is very excited about it."

Lewis said this development is the latest from the hospital's Mission Forward plan instituted by interim CEO George Caralis in October 2008.

"The whole point was to restructure and stop the loss of money," Lewis said. "To date, we've saved almost $15 million, and one of the options of the plan was a possible transfer of ownership."

The Mercy system includes hospitals in several nearby cities including St. John's in Springfield, Aurora, Cassville, Rogers, Ark., and Fort Scott and Independence, Kan.

"They have a hole in their service in this area," Lewis said, noting that a transfer to Sisters of Mercy would likely benefit the insurance options for patients in the area. "There are more than 4,000 physicians in the Mercy Health Systems in this area, compared to St. John's, which right now stands alone. This is a very good thing for everyone."

Barb Meyer, Mercy vice president for communications, said acquiring St. John's would complement the system's services.

"Our geographic presence in all of those areas makes it a logical fit to be part of the area that Mercy serves," Meyer said. "We don't necessarily look to acquire facilities outside of the core areas that we are already in."

Meyer said it was "too early to speculate" about how the acquisition may affect the level of service offered at St. John's.

St. John's CEO Debbie Linnes resigned in June 2008, marking the beginning of several months of change for the Joplin hospital. St. John's parent company hired Insight Health Partners to streamline efficiency within the hospital, and the hospital is working through 700 pages of recommendations from the consultants. In November, St. John's announced it would be cutting as many as 160 jobs and closing some operations.

Lewis said Caralis addressed the employees of St. John's on May 1 and assured them that this transfer of sponsorship would not mean more cuts in programming or personnel, and could actually mean more job security.

"The Sisters of Mercy Health System has a strong history of service in communities surrounding Joplin, and a relationship with St. John's would be a natural extension for Mercy in terms of our geographic presence," Lynn Britton, Mercy president and CEO, said in a news release. "More importantly, St. John's and Mercy share a rich history as health ministries that were founded by the Sisters of Mercy and that continue to be shaped by our faith-based heritage. With this in mind, we are pleased to be invited to continue the process of determining a potential future relationship between our two organizations."