Published: 11/15/2012 9:04 PM | Last update: 11/15/2012 11:33 PM St. Catherine, St. Rose will be part of huge Colorado affiliation. By John Green - The Hutchinson News - jgreen@hutchnews.com Two Catholic-owned healthcare facilities in western Kansas - St. Catherine Hospital in Garden City and St. Rose Ambulatory and Surgery Center in Great Bend - will soon become part of Colorado's largest health care organization.

They will join Denver-based Centura Health Initiatives, a massive health care consortium formed in 1996 that is jointly operated by Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI) and Adventist Health System, a mission of the Seventh Day Adventist Church.

The change, local directors said, won't result in any immediate differences notable to the public other than changes in colors of the care facilities signs, from teal to blue. It will, however, enable local health care providers to access expanded specialized and expert care from other entities in the organization, and allow the organizations to better weather expected changes in health care regulation and funding.

"The organizational structure at St. Catherine's and St. Rose, in terms of governance structure, will remain intact," said Scott Taylor, president and CEO of CHI Kansas. "My boss changes... There may be dotted line reporting changes in terms of senior officers. But within the organization itself, there is no change in reporting structure. Board authorities at each facility remain the same with the Catholic Health Initiatives."

Officials expect no reductions in employment at either facility, either, Taylor said. In fact, some operations the institution previously scheduled to outsource to third party companies will now remain internal.

"They'll actually get to stay with their current employers, where formally they were scheduled to transition out Jan. 1," he said.

The organization will begin work on the integration immediately, with systems at St. Catherine and St. Rose transitioned to Centura Health in the coming months.

Consumer benefits

Centura Health is Colorado's largest family of hospitals and health care services and one of the state's largest private employers, operating 13 hospitals, seven senior living communities and home care and hospice services.

The consolidation "will benefit consumers throughout the region by facilitating shared best practices, linked systems of care, transparent exchanges of health records, and, ultimately, improved and more-consistent clinical quality across the two states and region," according to press release from CHI.

See more here:

Catholic health care groups to join forces