SSM’s Oklahoma hub strategy has a St. Louis flavor

An impending marriage between Catholic-sponsored SSM Health and the Oklahoma University Medical Center will create a $1.6 billion system that positions SSM in Oklahoma City similarly to its hubs in St. Louis and Madison, Wis.

SSM, with annual revenue of about $6 billion, is adding the three-hospital Oklahoma University health system through a joint operating agreement that allows SSM to run the system while sharing financial risks with the medical center, said Bill Thompson, the long-time CEO of SSM, who has announced he will retire from the system once his successor is named.

The Oklahoma University Medical Center, a teaching and research hospital system affiliated with the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine, posted revenue of about $965 million in its fiscal 2016.

It will be wedded to SSM’s operations in Oklahoma City: St. Anthony Hospital, Bone and Joint Hospital at St. Anthony and St. Anthony Shawnee Hospital. Those operations, including a comprehensive network of clinics and outpatient facilities, generated revenue of $623 million last year.

The joint operating agreement is expected to be completed in the first half of 2017.

In Oklahoma City, SSM is taking a page from its playbook in St. Louis. Just over a year ago, SSM acquired St. Louis University Hospital from Tenet Healthcare Corp. to give it an academic medical center in its large St. Louis market. Thompson said operating a teaching hospital in St. Louis and now Oklahoma City gives SSM first shot at recruiting physicians, while providing the communities with access to high-acuity care integrated with the community hospitals SSM owns.