Sisters to sell St. Francis Health Care Centre |
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Written by LAURIE STEVENS BERTKE, Chronicle Writer
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Friday, 26 June 2009 11:45 |
GREEN SPRINGS—The Franciscan Sisters of Our Lady of Perpetual Help have announced plans to sell the health care center they have sponsored in Green Springs, Ohio, for more than 50 years.
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| Flanked by employees from both St. Francis Health Care Centre and Elmwood Centers, Inc., Franciscan Sister Regina Strassburger, general minister of the Franciscan Sisters of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, announces her congregation’s plan to sell St. Francis to Elmwood at a press conference June 24. (Chronicle photo by Laurie Stevens Bertke) |
St. Francis Health Care Centre, a Long-Term Acute Care Hospital (LTACH) and skilled nursing facility owned by the St. Louis-based congregation and managed by Vibra Healthcare, is to be acquired by Elmwood Centers, Inc., a family-owned and operated residential and healthcare organization with senior residential communities in Tiffin, Fremont and Green Springs.
A press conference regarding the pending sale of St. Francis was held June 24 on the front lawn of Elmwood’s 12-acre Green Springs campus, which is located directly across the street from St. Francis.
“In the last 10 years, our community of sisters has realized the challenge a stand-alone healthcare facility has in surviving, let alone thriving, in today’s healthcare environment,” said Franciscan Sister Regina Strassburger, general minister of the Franciscan Sisters of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, who traveled from St. Louis with three other members of her congregation to attend the conference.
“We want St. Francis and its mission of giving dignified care with compassion and joy to continue,” she said. “We have prayed for someone with more resources and a caring mission to purchase St. Francis.”
Kathy Hunt, owner and CEO of Elmwood Centers, Inc., noted the two institutions have been neighbors since her parents purchased the Elmwood Rest Home in Green Springs in 1972.
“St. Francis Health Care Center is a valuable resource to this region and it is way too special to be given to just anybody,” said Ms. Hunt. “We are thrilled that as a local health care provider, we have had this opportunity to continue to keep St. Francis of Green Springs operated in our very special community.”
The acquisition would create one of the largest senior and rehabilitation care campuses in northwest Ohio.
The combined, 42-acre campus would include independent retirement living, assisted living, skilled nursing, an LTACH providing care for patients with physical rehabilitative and medically complex needs, short-term convalescence care, inpatient and outpatient therapy, an aquatic therapy pool and other health care services. It would also include Elmwood’s corporate offices, group homes for MR/DD adults and a medical building.
Although services offered by St. Francis and Elmwood overlap somewhat in the area of skilled nursing care, Ms. Hunt said acquiring St. Francis presents an opportunity to expand in that area since Elmwood’s smaller facility normally operates at 100 percent occupancy.
“From day one, St. Francis has always complemented us,” she added.
In an interview following the press conference, Sr. Strassburger described the sale of St. Francis to Elmwood as a blessing and even something of a miracle.
Though a number of people have considered purchasing the facility in the past decade, the buyer ultimately became “the lady across the street, in the worst economic time our country has seen since the 1930s,” she observed. “That’s God’s grace.”
The sisters are grateful they did not have to sell the St. Francis Health Care Centre to a large corporation, she added, noting Ms. Hunt has a “wonderful reputation” in the community.
“Kathy believes in compassionate care and has great plans for St. Francis,” Sr. Strassburger said.
The 30-acre St. Francis Healthcare Centre campus is home to the world’s largest naturally occurring sulphur spring, which feeds into a pond on the property.
Visitors have traveled to the spring for centuries seeking the alleged curative powers of its water, but it was a fortuitous encounter on a train that first brought the Franciscan Sisters to the area.
In 1953, Sr. Strassburger relates, the congregation’s general superior was traveling from St. Louis to Wisconsin to look at a hospital that was for sale. On the way, the gentleman sitting beside her on the train asked if she would like to buy a sanatorium in Green Springs.
She took him up on the offer and the sisters acquired Oak Ridge Sanatorium in Green Springs that year.
It was gradually transformed into the first physical rehabilitation hospital in northwest Ohio, and the sisters also opened a nursing home on the property. The hospital was designated the first LTACH in Ohio in 1983.
In 1996, Christopher Reeve attended the dedication of an $18 million expansion to St. Francis Health Care Centre.
The institution has long been renowned for its physical rehabilitation services. “So many miracles have walked out of St. Francis,” said Sr. Strassburger.
Though many sisters have ministered at St. Francis over the years, only one member of the congregation — Franciscan Sister Anthony Marie Valdez — remains on the staff today, serving as pastoral care director.
Sr. Strassburger said Sr. Valdez has permission from the community to remain in Green Springs, but she must first undergo an interview process like the rest of the St. Francis employees.
Sutton Bank of Attica is assisting Elmwood in acquiring St. Francis, with closing expected to occur at the end of July.
Asked whether all employees are to be kept on, Ms. Hunt responded Elmwood is still working “to tie down that answer,” but she said she is hopeful.
“Our Elmwood team will join the St. Francis team and together we will do everything possible to make this venture a true success story,” she said during the press conference.
“We look forward to the day in the not-too-distant future when St. Francis Health Care Centre of Green Springs becomes Elmwood Healthcare Center at the Springs,” said Ms. Hunt.
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Last Updated on Monday, 09 August 2010 13:44 |
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