Jennie Stuart Health in Hopkinsville hosted a town hall meeting Wednesday night to answer questions from the community about the hospital’s recent decision to seek affiliation with a larger health care system.
The board of the private nonprofit medical center signed a letter of intent on Sept. 23 to join Deaconess Health, a system based in Evansville, Indiana that operates 23 hospitals in Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky.
While the letter of intent is non-binding, Jennie Stuart officials are in the midst of negotiating a definitive agreement with Deaconess. Hospital leaders said during the meeting that they expect to sign this binding agreement in December.
The hospital’s chief financial officer, Mark Laramee, said affiliating with Deaconess could help keep medical services currently offered at Jennie Stuart.
“Our hospital is not and has not been at risk of closing, but a more sustainable run rate for our organization could require a reduction in service or other difficult decisions in the future if we were to remain independent,” Laramee said.
Hospital officials said that Deaconess has committed to retaining all Jennie Stuart employees in good standing, and to providing “comparable or better pay and benefits” compared to the nonprofit medical center’s current offerings. Jennie Stuart currently has over 900 full-time employees throughout its hospital and clinics.
Board chair Leslie Carroll said the decision to seek affiliation with Deaconess was made with the nonprofit hospital’s long-term viability in mind.
“The cost of supplies and technology, labor pressures, as well as the substantial investments required to operate a health system to meet high standards of care are far greater today than what Jennie Stuart has ever experienced in its history,” Carroll said. “The fact is that our hospital is unable to make the investments needed to improve the quality of care and secure our long-term future.”
According to Carroll, the Jennie Stuart board began a process in fall 2023 to “identify a way to support required investments,” including an electronic health record system. In partnership with outside legal, financial and healthcare advisors, the board evaluated three scenarios: whether the hospital could independently afford to pursue needed technology upgrades; the potential for affiliation with another healthcare provider specific to electronic health record support; and a fully integrated partnership with another healthcare organization.
By December 2023, Carroll said the board had determined that seeking a fully integrated partnership was the best path forward for the Christian County medical center. After evaluating what Carroll described as several “competitive” proposals, the board unanimously supported moving forward with Deaconess as the organization’s preferred partner. Following months of negotiations, the board signed a letter of intent with Deaconess in September.
Several questions from some of the more than 70 attendees at Wednesday’s meeting centered on the hospital board’s failure to communicate to the community that this nearly year-long process was underway.
Tracey Williams is the chair of the Jennie Stuart Health Foundation, the hospital’s philanthropy arm that supports community care and service expansion. She said the foundation was unaware that the hospital had been looking at merging with Deaconess until its board announced the decision last month.
“We did not know when we had our donor recognition of the cancer center [in mid-September 2024] and recognized those donors who made such huge contributions and showed their love for the patients who come here, we did not know,” Williams said.
According to the Hoptown Chronicle, a group called Save Jennie Stuart formed in early October with the goal of maintaining local control of the hospital and convincing board members to slow down or abandon plans to affiliate with Deaconess.
Darrell Gustafson, one of the group’s directors, said the board officials that spoke at Wednesday’s meeting were mischaracterizing what affiliating with Deaconess would mean for the hospital.
“With all due respect, we've talked tonight about a partnership. A partnership entails co ownership. This is a sale of this hospital to a Evansville, Indiana based corporation. So let's call it what it is,” Gustafson said.
Carroll said the Jennie Stuart board plans to meet on Dec. 2 to consider the binding agreement. The board is also considering scheduling an additional community town hall meeting before it makes a final decision.
