When Tucson, Ariz.-based Carondelet Health Network agreed to sell two Kansas City, Mo. area hospitals to Ontario, Calif.-based Prime Healthcare Services, it did not include the two hospitals' charity foundations in the sale, according to a Kansas City Star report.
Now, the philanthropic foundations of St. Joseph Medical Center in Kansas City, Mo., and St. Mary's Medical Center in Blue Springs, Mo., have a combined $20 million in donations and no idea what will happen to the money.
The foundations are advocating for the locally-raised money to be used in the Kansas City community but Ascension Health, the St. Louis-based nonprofit healthcare system that owns Carondelet, has declined to address the matter until "later,” according to the report.
The foundations' $20 million in assets was raised mostly by annual dinners, golf tournaments and donations from the physicians who work for either St. Joseph Medical Center or St. Mary's Medical Center.
Money from the foundations has previously been used for purchasing medical equipment, expansion and renovation projects, pre-natal programs for low-income women, tuition for nurses continuing their education and more.
Ascension was involved in a similar situation in 2006 in which the system sold St. Joseph Hospital in Augusta, Ga., to Triads Hospitals, which is now part of Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems. In that case, the foundation, which remained in local control after the sale, redirected the funds to a new, local, healthcare-related cause.