Owner Heavy on Assets

By Michael Hooper

By Michael Hooper

THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL

Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth Health System, owner of St. Francis Health Center in Topeka, is a strong organization with $620 million in cash and investments and a long history in Kansas.

Sisters of Charity traces its origin to France in the 1600s but arrived in Leavenworth in 1858 and opened a hospital six years later. The organization opened a Topeka hospital in 1909.

Today, the SCLHS is based in Lenexa and has nine hospitals and four stand-alone clinics in California, Colorado, Kansas and Montana.

The tax return for Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth Health System for the year that ended May 31, 2005, showed $609 million in cash and savings and $11.9 million in investments.

Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth Health System on Wednesday said it approved plans by St. Francis to purchase 132 acres of the former Menninger campus for a hospital and health park.

St. Francis is among the strongest hospitals in the SCLHS, with $181 million in revenue for the year that ended May 31, 2005, and $235 million in cash and investments. The hospital also had little debt.

The sisters’ St. Joseph Hospital in Denver brings in more revenue, $313 million in 2004, but doesn’t have the same level of cash reserves as St. Francis.

For years, the sisters’ hospitals operated independently, but in 1972, they formed a corporation for the direction and management of the hospitals, according to the corporation’s Web site. Its operating model included a health care corporation and separate incorporation for each hospital, and a system of management coordination.

The articles of incorporation of the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth Health Services Corp. were filed Dec. 19, 1972, in Kansas.

With the creation of the new corporation, the elected officers of the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth religious community were the corporate members and board of directors of the Health Services Corp. and corporate members of each hospital.

The hospitals were encouraged to develop their own governing boards of directors, but 51 percent of each board was required to be members of Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth.

Over the years, changes were made in the articles of incorporation and bylaws to facilitate a shared governance of the health system by laypersons, including representatives of other health care systems, along with members of the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth.

In May 2000, the corporation changed its name to the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth Health System to more accurately reflect the way in which it is working to strengthen its health care ministry.

Michael Hooper can be reached

at (785)295-1293

or michael.hooper@cjonline.com.

(c) 2007 Topeka Capital Journal. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.