New Alliance Among Leading Healthcare Providers to Transform Care Delivery in Houston, Texas Area

HOUSTON, Texas — Three medical institutions – Baylor College of Medicine, CHI St. Luke’s Health and the Texas Heart Institute – have significantly expanded and enhanced their long-standing educational, clinical and research affiliations in conjunction with Englewood, Colo.-based Catholic Health Initiatives, which sponsors and operates the newly named CHI St. Luke’s Health.

Catholic Health Initiatives announced that CHI St. Luke’s has partnered with Baylor College of Medicine in a joint venture for the new hospital on Baylor’s McNair Campus, which will eventually replace the CHI St. Luke’s hospital in the Texas Medical Center.

At the same time, Catholic Health Initiatives announced a new, strengthened affiliation with Texas Heart Institute, which calls for a significant, 10-year investment in the renowned institution to expand education and research into cardiovascular diseases.

The announcements were made by leaders of Catholic Health Initiatives, CHI St. Luke’s, Baylor and Texas Heart at a news conference in the Texas Medical Center. The agreements signal the continued expansion of the TMC, with venues in place to accommodate that growth.

CHI St. Luke’s Health, Baylor and THI will work to develop a state-of-the-art cardiovascular program on the campus of the new hospital that will be capable of transforming cardiovascular medicine through leadership in areas such as regenerative medicine and the development of next-generation medical devices.

The joint-venture acute care hospital, which is part of CHI St. Luke’s Health, will be named CHI St. Luke’s Health Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center and eventually will replace the existing, 850-bed St. Luke’s Medical Center on the Texas Medical Center campus. The first phase of the project – a 250-bed inpatient facility – is expected to open by spring of 2015. The second phase, adding up to 400 additional acute-care beds, is expected to be completed in 2018.

In addition, CHI St. Luke’s Health and Baylor have signed an academic affiliation agreement that includes a wide array of cooperative educational and research initiatives. CHI, CHI St. Luke’s Health and Baylor also will develop a comprehensive cancer center on the campus of the new hospital. Baylor is now home to an NCI-designated cancer center, and the goal would be for a joint center to achieve comprehensive status.

Plans also call for community cancer centers across the region.  Baylor’s research and education missions, as well as a large part of its patient-care mission, are not included in the partnership. The joint venture does not include Baylor’s outpatient clinics or its physicians.

The affiliation agreements fulfill a promise made by CHI leaders in April, when the Episcopal Diocese of Texas announced it would transfer St. Luke’s Episcopal Health System to the Colorado-based health system.  At the time, CHI’s Lofton declared a commitment to build upon and expand existing relationships with partners such as THI, Baylor College of Medicine, Kelsey-Seybold Clinic and independent physicians across southeast Texas. CHI plans to invest more than $1 billion in the region’s healthcare infrastructure over the next five years.