St. Joseph’s Hospital to join No. 2 Catholic health-care system in U.S.

SYRACUSE — St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center announced it has agreed to join the second-largest Catholic health-care system in the country, as it seeks to strengthen its financial position in a rapidly changing health-care marketplace amid the national health-care reform law.

The board of directors of St. Joseph’s and Livonia, Mich.–based  CHE Trinity Health, which provides health-care services in 21 states via 82 hospitals and 89 other facilities and programs,  have signed a non-binding letter of intent.

“This alignment will provide a strong financial foundation for the future of St. Joseph’s and help ensure our ability to meet the potential challenges of health care reform,” Kathryn Ruscitto, president and CEO of St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center, said in a news release. She added that the move will enable St. Joseph’s to “access the resources and economies of scale provided by a large health system.”

The move will shift the sponsorship of St. Joseph’s Hospital from the Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities, which founded the hospital 144 years ago, to Catholic Health Ministries, the group that sponsors CHE Trinity Health, according to the release.

Over the coming months, St. Joseph’s says it will be working closely with CHE Trinity Health to perform the “necessary due diligence required before finalization of an agreement” as well as educating the Central New York community on the benefits of the planned alignment.

CHE Trinity Health was formed in May when Pennsylvania–based Catholic Health East merged with Michigan–based Trinity Health. The combined system generates annual operating revenue of about $13.3 billion and has assets of about $19.3 billion, according to the release. It employs more than 87,000 people, including 4,100 employed physicians.

St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center is a nonprofit, 431-bed hospital and health-care system providing services to patients in 16 counties in Central New York.

The facility generated $586 million in revenue in 2012 with net income of $9 million, according to the hospital. St. Joseph’s employs more than 3,700 full-time workers.

For more on this story, see the July 12-19 issue of The Central New York Business Journal.

Contact Rombel at arombel@cnybj.com