© 2024 University of Missouri - KBIA
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

MU Health Care Moves Forward In Jefferson City, Mexico Hospital Purchase Efforts

MU Health Care sign
Nathan Lawrence
/
KBIA
MU Health Care's main campus, near Stadium Blvd. in downtown Columbia.

MU Health Care is in exclusive talks to purchase hospitals in Jefferson City and Mexico, Missouri, according to officials.

In a letter to staff Thursday morning, MU Health Care CEO Jonathan Curtright announced that the organization’s initial proposal to acquire St. Mary’s Hospital-Audrain and St. Mary’s Hospital-Jefferson City has been accepted.

“We believe this transition will allow us to all work together to further enhance delivery of care across Missouri,” Curtright said in the letter.

The hospitals are currently owned and managed by SSM Health, a not-for-profit Catholic health care company headquartered in the St. Louis area. In a company press release, SSM CEO Laura Kaiser said the company made its decision to sell the hospitals after seeing the need for better integrated care.

“In order to provide safe, high-quality health care services that are convenient and affordable,” Kaiser said in the release, “health systems must integrate all points of service across the entire continuum of care.”

The two organizations will now enter a what is being called “limited diligence period” to evaluate hospital practices and financial solvency. If final purchase is approved, St. Mary’s Hospital-Jefferson City would join MU Health Care’s existing practices in Missouri’s capital city, including the Capital Region Medical Center. St. Mary’s Hospital-Audrain would be MU Health’s first major office in Audrain County.

Nathan Lawrence is an editor, documentary filmmaker and data journalist.