Bon Secours St. Mary's Hospital (File photo)
Bon Secours Health System on Wednesday announced that it intends to merge with another Catholic health system, Cincinnati, Ohio-based Mercy Health.
The merger would result in the fifth-largest Catholic health system in the nation, according to a release. The merged system would span seven states and include 43 hospitals. The systems currently employ more than 57,000 between them.
The merger is expected to be complete by the end of the year.
“The mission, vision, values and geographic service areas of Bon Secours and Mercy Health are remarkably well-aligned and highly complementary,” says Richard J. Statuto, president and CEO of Bon Secours Health System in the release. “This merger strengthens our shared commitment to improve population health, eliminate health disparities, build strength to address social determinants of health, and invest heavily in innovating our approaches to health care.”
“We are guided by our shared faith and commitment to partner with communities to create a more humane world, build social justice for all, especially the poor and dying,” says Sister Patricia A. Eck, chair of Bon Secours Ministries. “This merger ensures a strong future for our shared health ministry as we work to bring health and wholeness to those we so humbly serve.”
Details were unavailable concerning the naming of the new system, where it will be based or how it will be governed.
Mercy Health serves communities in Ohio and Kentucky. It is one of the five-largest employers in Ohio. It was founded in 1986 by the Sisters of Mercy, an order that was founded in the 1800s in Dublin, Ireland.
Bon Secours is a nonprofit health system that has has facilities in Virginia, Maryland, South Carolina, Florida, New York and Kentucky. It is based in Marriottsville, Maryland, and traces its origins to the founding of the Sisters of Bon Secours in the 1800s to minister to the sick in Paris. Bon Secours opened St. Mary's Hospital in Richmond in 1966.
