Regionals: LHC Group to purchase Salem Hospital Home Care and more news ...

DURANGO, Colo.—Mercy Regional Medical Center, an 82-bed Catholic Health Initiatives hospital in Durango, will be integrated into Centura Health, a 12-hospital system based in Englewood, Colo. With this move, all of CHI’s Colorado hospitals will belong to the same subsystem. The integration was approved by the CHI Board of Stewardship Trustees March 11, and followed a previous unanimous recommendation to integrate by the Mercy Regional board of directors. The integration became effective immediately following the vote, said Centura spokeswoman Wendi Dammann. “We’ve already begun the transition,” she said. Mercy Regional President and CEO Kirk Dignum “will be serving on high-level councils and their leaders will become part of the leadership team at Centura Health,” she said. Mercy Regional’s origins trace back to Mercy Hospital of the San Juans founded by the Sisters of Mercy in 1882. Its current facility opened June 27, 2006.

SALEM, Ore.—LHC Group signed a definitive agreement to buy Salem Hospital Home Care for an undisclosed sum. Salem Hospital Home Care has a service area across six counties, and had net revenue of $5.5 million over the past 12 months. LHC Group, of Lafayette, La., is a publicly traded company and one of the largest home health services nationwide. The sale is expected to close on March 31. “LHC Group has provided high-quality care for its patients in other areas of the country, which was a primary consideration in making this agreement,” said Cheryl Nester Wolfe, chief nursing officer and a senior vice president of operations for two-hospital Salem Health, in a written statement.

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