While the rumblings have been going on for some time, it appears as though St. Francis hospital will announce closure on Tuesday.
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Multiple sources in Topeka have been told SCL Health will announce Tuesday it is closing St. Francis Health Center.
The sources all have direct knowledge of negotiations regarding the hospital’s future.
As the dire financial condition of St. Francis neared a breaking point Friday, preparations for closure accelerated to the point Gov. Sam Brownback’s office met with Topeka’s mayor and the state’s attorney general to prepare for the worst.
The closure would be the second prominent closure in Kansas following the loss of Mercy Hospital in Independence, Kansas in 2015. The Kansas Hospital Association has argued that many hospitals are “at risk” and desperately need Medicaid Expansion, to which hospital administrators and others testified in Topeka.
Jim Ward, Democratic Leader in the House, had this to say:
Ward, who has campaigned for Medicaid expansion and reform of the Kansas Department of Children & Families has been vocal about the fact this could happen anywhere.
Speaking about Mercy Hospital, Ward told me: “Don’t think this couldn’t happen in a lot of places in Kansas. The longer we wait, the more likely some community suffers.”
Ward has noted that Democratic members intend to continue to push for Medicaid Expansion, through override or other procedure in the state house when it returns to order in May.
Governor Brownback, however, is prepared to try a distinctly non-Republican solution: suing to force a business to operate; which seems shockingly close to the government controls he has decried for the last few years.
Members of the Brownback administration huddled at the Capitol with Schmidt, Topeka Mayor Larry Wolgast and St. Francis Medical personnel for discussion of legal options that could block, delay or mediate action by SCL Health, the Denver-based owner of St. Francis, to shut down a hospital with 1,600 employees.
“Any decision by its out-of-state owners that would fail to maintain full operations of Saint Francis Hospital would be deeply troubling,” Schmidt said. “The absence of meaningful consultation with local leaders compounds the concern, particularly in light of the considerable benefits the people of Kansas have bestowed on this charitable operation over the years.”
It seems as though the market forces Brownback thought would be an “adrenaline shot to the heart” of the Kansas economy is poised to claim another victim.