Wilcox Hospital parent company mulling purchase of St. Francis

Leaders at Hawaii Pacific Health, owners of Wilcox Memorial Hospital, are considering entering into a partnership with the St. Francis Healthcare System.

In an internal memorandum released Thursday to staff, Chuck Sted, HPH president and chief executive officer, wrote that HPH is exploring further “synergies” between the two organizations.

HPH has “recently initiated preliminary discussions and signed a confidentiality agreement with St. Francis Healthcare System to explore further synergies between our two organizations,” Sted wrote.

It’s not clear if the partnership would include a purchase of all or part of the St. Francis holdings, but a total purchase would make HPH far and away the largest provider of health care in the state, with somewhere above 9,000 employees and sales of over $1 billion.

“It is important to stress that we have considerable work ahead of us in the discussions with St. Francis, which will include input from both within our organizations and externally,” Sted wrote.

HPH is a nonprofit health-care system formed in the 2001 merger of Wilcox Health System on Kaua‘i, Kapi‘olani Health, and Straub Clinic and Hospital, both on O‘ahu. In 2001, it operated four hospitals and 24 outpatient centers with over 5,000 employees, including 300 medical staff, affiliations with nearly 1,000 private physicians, and sales of $490 million.

“At any point, it is possible that either Hawaii Pacific Health or St. Francis Healthcare System may decide that it is not in their best interests to pursue this further, and we will discontinue our dialogue,” Sted continued.

The St. Francis Healthcare System became operational in 1996 and had 3,385 full-time employees in 2001, when it reported sales of $560 million.

Phil Hayworth, Business Editor, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 251) and mailto:phayworth@pulitzer.net