Exempla Healthcare ownership changes

DENVER – Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth Health System is negotiating a deal to gain sole ownership of Denver-based Exempla Healthcare.

The Catholic nonprofit health-care organization, which already owns one Exempla Healthcare hospital, Saint Joseph in Denver, is buying out the portion of Exempla currently owned by Denver-based LMC Community Foundation for an undisclosed amount.

Exempla Healthcare, formed in 1998, is comprised of three hospitals: Saint Joseph as well as Exempla Good Samaritan Medical Center in Lafayette and Exempla Lutheran Medical Center in Denver.

Lenexa, Kan.-based Sisters of Charity currently owns nine hospitals; after the change it will have 11: the three Exempla facilities in Colorado along with hospitals in California, Montana and Kansas.

PR from Exempla described a change in the hospital’s “sponsorship.” Sponsorship is “synonymous with ownership,´ said Exempla Healthcare Chief Executive Jeff Selberg.

A nonprofit’s sponsor has membership rights on the nonprofit’s board, said Kay Taylor, Exempla Healthcare’s vice president of communications and marketing. The benefit to the nonprofit is, “We will have access to their bond market through their high ratings,” she said. “We will share best practices with an 11 hospital system. We have similar culture and values.”

As a result of the ownership transfer, Sisters of Charity “will invest a significant amount of money” in Exampla’s infrastructure, according to a joint press release between Exempla, Sisters of Charity and LMC. No individual at the organizations would specify the amount of money to be invested.

The new sole ownership will mean new Catholic directives at Good Samaritan and Lutheran. Saint Joseph already follows these directives.

Catholic hospitals operate under guidelines called Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services, which primarily apply to issues around sterilization and abortion.

Although the directives forbid abortion and tubal ligation, a method of female sterilization, these procedures will still be available for patients, Taylor said. Prior to the ownership change, the hospitals will “determine how those services can continue either in the hospital or very close to the hospital,” Taylor said.

“There are many models throughout the country that have efficiently and thoughtfully found solutions where a Catholic-affiliated hospital can honor the Catholic ERDs and stay independent of procedures that are not within the guidelines. The financing will be independent of the Sisters of Charity.”

Taylor said for the community “it will be fairly seamless.”

The hospitals will continue to operate under the Exempla name, and all employees will remain employees of Exempla Healthcare. LMC Community Foundation will continue to raise money for Exempla Lutheran Medical Center after the transition, said LMC spokesman Palmer Pekarek.

The transition is expected to finalize in mid-2007.

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