The university will gain two board seats in SSM Health – St. Louis. SSM Health – St. Louis currently has seven hospitals — one of them a children's medical center staffed almost exclusively by SLUCare doctors.
Saint Louis University Hospital will remain the primary teaching and research hospital for the university; and, only physicians who are part of SLUCare, along with fellows and medical students of the university, will see patients at the hospital.
Thompson
According to William P. Thompson, president and chief executive of SSM Health, the addition of Saint Louis University Hospital will give patients access to "all levels of care within SSM Health, from the high-quality, community-based care provided by SSM Health physicians, hospitals and outpatient sites to more medically complex care, including a Level I trauma center and nationally recognized liver, kidney and bone marrow transplant programs provided by SLUCare specialists at SLU Hospital."
Both SSM and Unity, a predecessor to the St. Louis-based Mercy system, made unsuccessful bids for Saint Louis University Hospital when the university put it up for sale in 1998. They lost out to the Dallas-based, for-profit Tenet, which according to published reports at the time, made a $300 million cash offer for the quaternary care hospital and gave an ongoing share of the hospital's revenue to the university.
Tenet will continue to operate a hospital in Des Peres, Mo., and an urgent care center in Ellisville, Mo., both suburbs of St. Louis.
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